My political rantings over for at least the next five minutes, I thought that I should talk about my Christmas Tree.

Those who have known me for a few years know that I traditionally have two Christmas trees. In my last home I had one in the dining room, a second in the living room. After I moved that changed to one in my studio and one in my home. My trees have always been artificial for a number of reasons.

This year, due to an odd family event, I continued with the artificial tree in my studio, but switched to a real tree in my house, something I’ve not had since I was a child.

As long as I was going with a real tree, I decided to go all out. I must admit that I’ve never found too much value in moderating ones pleasures, and I find Christmas Trees to be a pleasure. With this one moderation is just about the last thing that could ever come to mind.

I decided to go with a live tree instead of a cut tree. It will make I think a beautiful yard tree after Christmas, and given that I own a goodly chunk of land I’ve decided that it would be fun to start such a tradition, marking each tree with the year it served as my Christmas tree. Those who come later might enjoy walking around reading whatever little stone year plaques I come up with.

The ceilings in my house are over twenty feet high, so I didn’t really have much limitation as to tree size. Hence I went with a tree somewhere between twelve and fifteen feet high. This baby is huge, and it looks great from outside as it shows perfectly through the glass front of my house.

The only problem I had was in decorating the tree. I didn’t think about that too much before it arrived, and I must admit that it was a bit, perhaps a lot more difficult than I thought it might be.

Over half of the tree had to be decorated with a ladder.

An extension ladder would not work because my hardwood floors are too slippery for one to remain in place, so only a folding ladder would do. Alas, my folding ladder is only a five footer, so even standing on the top marked ‘Do Not Stand Here’ didn’t raise one high enough to decorate easily. The angel on top had to be placed with both the ladder, and a broom handle pushing the ornament up.

A second trouble was that trees of course narrow towards the top, so one can’t get too close to the top of the tree with a ladder held away by the bottom branches.

In any event, decorating it was not easy, but it is an amazing and wonderful tree. Not to mention unique, as one rarely encounters a tree of such size indoors.

I’ve decided that next year I will once again have a massive tree, but that I’ll buy a bigger ladder to go with it!