To tree or not to tree, that is the question

After several years of dating, I posed a question to Dave this year.

"Would you like it if I set up a tree at my house for you this year?"

He answered, "That would be really nice..."

And, so, the little Jewish girl (me) who is dating the Christian man (Dave) began to learn about Christmas trees...

As much time as Dave spends over here with me, my thought was that he might really appreciate having a little tree here as well as in his home. I know the importance of Christmas in his life and wanted to be open to sharing some of his traditions with him. Even though I hadn't ever had a tree in my house before, I was very willing to do it for him this year.

Saturday morning we headed over to the tree lot to look over the prospects. I looked at the smaller trees while he began to inspect the larger ones for his own house. The smell was wonderful in the lot as all of the trees were stacked several rows deep giving off that freshly-cut tree aroma.

I immediately found a 5 foot tree that I thought had a nice shape at the top and had the gentleman trim off about a foot at the bottom...leaving me with a perfect, little tree.

Dave, on the other hand, took a little longer to pick out "the perfect tree". After opening up several trees from the strings that were holding them tightly closed, he would shake it, twirl it around, and gently push down on its branches. He was trying to see if the gaps would be filled as the branches began to drop. He finally picked out "the tree" that he wanted, but, unfortunately found that the trunk was split at the bottom when it was hoisted up on the platform for trimming. So, back to the untying, shaking, twirling and pushing until he found just the right one...which he eventually did.

The first thing that I had to learn was that the tree needed water....lots and lots and lots of water. Secondly, I realized that I had to have a special place to put the tree where it could fit comfortably in the room as well as being near an electrical outlet. And, finally, I learned that there would be pine needles scattered all around the area where the tree stood.

This was all new information for me. This time every year I will get out my menorah and candles as I get ready for Chanukah. We don't have trees for Chanukah....just candle lighting, gifts and potato pancakes! So, I had a lot to learn.

Gizmo came over curiously and smelled this new item that we were setting up in the house. She really didn't quite know what to think about it. Hopefully she will not jump on it or be afraid of it as we both get used to having a Christmas tree in the house.

We put a string of little tiny white lights on the tree and then filled it with some of my handmade pottery ornaments. I tied a few bows at the top and hung one of my little angels there. The lights were plugged in....and, it magically sparkled and glistened.

I could tell that Dave appreciated what we had done....and that made it all feel right to me.

So, this year will find my Chanukah menorah standing proudly next to a cute, little, wonderfully-smelling Christmas tree as Dave and I share our two holidays together. I think that the joy of sharing our traditions in spite of our different religions is probably what this time of the year is really all about...

Happy "Whatever you celebrate" to all of you! : )