Our Alaskan Christmas Tree

We had a great visit with both sides of the family and many friends over Thanksgiving (we'll write about this in the next few days). We are now back in Alaska and are preparing for our first Christmas away from family in our 11 years of marriage. After watching the Wilderness Family (a movie about a family that decides to leave the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles and move to the wilderness), we set out on an adventure to acquire a Christmas tree.

Yesterday, we began hiking in the woods (around the camp) in search of the perfect tree. After looking for a long time, we came to the conclusion that the perfect tree is not found in the forest surrounded by other trees, fighting for its share of sunlight. Perfectly symmetrical trees tend to grow on tree farms, with conditions just right for full, shapely trees.

As we hiked through a foot of snow in 10 degree temperatures, our standards gradually shifted from the stereotypical 8-foot-tall green isosceles triangle tree to something with a lot more... character. We hiked for about an hour before finding our tree, one that we both agreed on. We removed as much snow as we could from the base of the tree, then used a tree saw to cut the trunk as low to the ground as possible.

As you can see, our tree has far fewer branches cluttering it's trunk than most Christmas trees we've seen. Also, it's thin trunk and light weight make it highly portable. Plus, this one has fewer of those pesky needles to fall off during the next few weeks.

Our Christmas tree stand would make Steve Smith of the Red Green Show proud (though it uses no duct tape). I cut a piece of plywood so that it would tightly fit into a 5 gallon bucket. Then I drilled two sets of holes in the top and bottom of the plywood. I placed the plywood on the trunk of the tree, and used wire to fasten the trunk to the plywood through the holes. After placing the tree/plywood into the bucket, I wedged a few pieces of firewood into the bucket to make it even more secure.

We decorated the tree with $1.50 worth of lights from Salvation Army and the few ornaments we have here (we are still awaiting some decorations we shipped from NY 2 weeks ago). According to the USPS, "The timeliness of service to destinations outside the contiguous U.S. may be affected by the limited availability of transportation." We are learning to be more flexible and this includes being okay with things taking longer... the reality is we appreciate things more when we have to wait for them.

We think our tree looks pretty good (from exactly the right angle). Plus, getting it was a lot of fun.