Making holiday memories

By By Jason Cannon
Another annual Cannon family tradition has come and gone. Sunday, Tiffany decorated our Christmas tree.
Each year we travel to the nearest Christmas tree farm or place that sells live Christmas trees.
Plastic or "fake" Christmas trees are a no-no at my house.
Typically we don't make such an early run into the holiday but our schedule for the next few weeks is tightly packed.
It's always been important to Tiffany to have the tree up and decorated on or around the first weekend in December.
The weekend after Thanksgiving was the only opportunity we had for Tiffany to meet her self-imposed deadline.
For the last few years we've driven through the rain so Tiffany can pick out the perfect tree.
Each year, I can't help but smile as I think about Clark Griswold dragging his family through the snow for hours on end in search of his family's tree.
I could surely see that being an option for Lizzie and I if there were such a place close by.
Our routine each year is basically the same.
I grab a tree, bounce it a few times and spin it around so Tiffany can see all its sides.
Tiffany will tilt her head, make a little face and say, "let's look at another one."
When all is said and done, we usually wind up going back to one of the first few trees we saw.
This year, working though a light drizzle the employees at the lot and I bounced a few damp trees with the consistency of a No-Pest Strip.
As many needles were stuck to my hands, wrist and shirt as there were on the limbs.
We found our perfect tree – the first one we picked up if I remember correctly – and we drove home in a downpour to decorate it.
Lizzie is a very active three year old and her greatest pleasure in life is to help Tiffany and I with whatever project we have going.
Not wanting to cover our little girl in a healthy sheen of sap, Tiffany got proactive. This year, Lizzie had her own tree – a small two-foot plastic tree donned with lights, small red balls and Spongebob Squarepants and Sesame Street ornaments.
It has been decorated, undecorated and redecorated three or four times in the last 36 hours and ushered in what I expect will become another Christmas tradition at our house for years to come.
I hope each of you have already begun to make your 2007 Christmas memories but if you haven't, gasoline is the best way to remove sap from your hands and forearm.