Tree time

Last night, we decided to revisit the tree lot in Laurelhurst where we got our tree last year and were dismayed to find only noble firs at $11 per foot. This was definitely out of our price range and a little outrageous to Mark, who grew up in Portland where you can find excellent trees for $15. In my mind, we had two options.


Option 1: Stick with the noble and get a 4-foot tree. At least it would be easy to decorate.
Option 2: Home Depot

We asked the owner why the trees were so expensive and he told us that they were just cut yesterday and the nobles were always a little pricier. Mark mentioned that we had gotten a douglas fir at his lot for around $40 last year and asked what we could get for a similar price. To my surprise, the owner was completely cooperative and showed us four trees that he would sell us for $40. A couple of the trees were discounted for good reason – one tree looked like it was missing an entire row of branches. It would take some clever decorating to hide a hole of that size! Out of the bunch, we did end up picking a 7-foot noble that had sufficient branch coverage and stood straight. Mark was able to borrow his company’s SUV so we could easily strap it to the rack and get it home.

We don’t have any decorations on it yet but the tree is in its stand and waiting for some Christmas love! And it sure makes the house smell great!