the search

I used to believe that good things take time to accomplish. After all, patience is a virtue and all that. Christmas trees definitely fall into the category of good things, so it is only fitting that the search for the perfect tree should take some time--some good 'ol speak to your Christmas soul time.  

Except sometimes it doesn't.

 You see, this past weekend was a long weekend. The kind of long that deserves all the ooooooo's. Between weekend work to road tripping to ACC Championship football gaming to road tripping back home to decorating for Christmas to going to my students' show...I mean come on, life is hard sometimes when you do fun things on the weekends. 

So there Freddie and I were, in-between just arriving back to Charleston after a quick 24 getaway and going downtown to watch Annie Jr., with 45 minutes to spare. A lot can get done in 45 minutes when said a lot is carefully planned, but picking out the one, the most beautiful and perfect Christmas tree...that is a task that needs a couple more numbers added to the 45 in order to be accomplished. 

Or so I thought.

We drove to the nearest Christmas tree lot because of the whole short on time thing only to find that they had really nice trees. Fat ones, skinny ones, really, really tall ones--all the good trees. (Freddie prefers the rounded fat trees while I prefer the touch-the-ceiling tall ones). Low and behold, 6 minutes into our 45-minute search, and we found one we loved. Just hanging out in the corner by the street. Straight chilling waiting for us to find it. No way! Shut up! I mean, yes the tree was the perfect height and the right amount of roundedness for Freddie without being too round for me. It had no bald spots and no janky twisted branches. But...good things take time! Remember! Time means longer than 6 minutes. 

And it does mean longer than 6 minutes. It means 8 minutes, to be exact. Because those extra 2 minutes equal the time it took the Christmas tree lot workers to get our tree, saw it, net it, and have it tied to our car. Freddie kind of stood there scratching his head and mumbling things like, Oh I can help... and Need this?...oh you got it... and Let me...never mind. Before he got out a full sentence the nice men had finished the work and we were driving out of the parking lot with 35 minutes to spare.

All I can say is thank God for the Christmas trees and workers at the lot off of Six Mile Road. 

And also, thank God the grocery store is by that tree lot. Holla at ya gurl for knocking out Christmas trees and groceries in the same 45 minute time slot.

Tis the season for Christmas miracles.