The Wrong Tree

One Christmas season my dear mother decided that she wanted a real Christmas tree.
Great I thought, I had visions of driving into town, like in the movies and picking out the tree where the lights shown above it and everyone gets all misty eyed, but that thought lasted about 10 seconds when my dad said, "sure no problem, we will just go find you one in the woods and cut it ourselves".
Of course the "we" part meant I would have to be involved somehow, either in carrying the saw, holding the light, or dragging the tree home, any of which I was sure to find some way of getting into trouble over.
It just so happened that in previous years the 40 and some odd acres that was directly in front of our house had been bought by some city-slickers from out of state and planted with some type of evergreen trees, just the right height for a Christmas tree.
Well the day finally came and my dad and I, followed by two house cats and a dog, took off into the woods to find a tree. Apparently he had ideas i didnt have cause all we took was a orange piece of marking tape, the kind you tie around 2x4s and things that are two long and hanging out the back of your pick-up.
We walked and walked and finally after what seemed like hours to me, we found a really nice, straight tree. He tied the ribbon around it and home again we went.
Seeing us coming thru the woods with no tree, I could see my mother on the front porch with one arm on her hip and that "look" that I got quite often. But this time I was out of the line of fire, I knew this because her eyes didnt follow me when I weaved in and out of the trees in the front yard. They were fixed directly on dear old dad.
He said, "hold on , hold on, we found one, but I cant cut it yet, I dont want the neighbors to see us out there cutting that tree."
Of course what followed was, I told you we could have gotten one when we were in town, but oh no, you had to try and get one yourself, speech. Since it wasnt towards me, I backed away slowly and found something else to do.
That night, with a more determined attitude, my dad and I headed out into the woods with a saw and a flashlight. It had started snowing that afternoon and the wind was ice cold, the kind that can cut right thru you and just make you shiver. We finally came to the spot where the tree had been, but no ribbon. I said, I dont think this is it, but with the snow and wind, the ribbon must have just blown off. So I cut the tree down and we drug the tree home. After getting the tree stand on the tree and inviting all the family into the living room, my dad shook off the snow from the tree, brought it in, and stood it up..
Not a word was spoken, there in front of us stood what had to be, the ugliest tree we had ever seen, the snow had made the tree look full with all its branches, but what had happened was, we had cut down a small pine tree with not just one top, but three growing out of it. You know the kind that look like there had grown together. And the branches were crooked as well. It was all I could do to keep from laughing, but I knew better until I saw how this was gonna pan out.
Mom said with a sigh..(to my dad) "well you picked it out, and it is your families turn to come over here, its lovely, we are gonna keep it."
So that year we had a tree of all trees, one that required not one, but three angels on top. One that took more lights to hide the missing limbs and a huge red cloth under it to hide the double root.
The next year, mom got a brand new artificial tree from Sears..the day after Thankgiving.