Christmas tree purchasing, before and after.

Well, this weekend started off with all the best intentions of getting a Christmas tree on Sunday and doing our Christmas cards then too. Alas, it didn’t happen.

Friday we had two parties to go to, the office Christmas party was from 3 until 5 (two hours, that was just wrong). We held it at a restaurant across the street from the office in the Washington Harbor. It was good enough, I ended up winning the first prize giveaway right when I was commenting on never winning anything. Two $50 gift certificates for BP gas. This was nice but I don’t drive that much, sooooo I swapped with a friend who got a best buy gift card. Everyone was happy.

After that we went to the Bench Gym Christmas party. It was fun and we enjoyed it. It was a bit weird drinking wine at the gym. Great new space they moved into. There old place is now just a hole in the ground.

We then got food at Duplex dinner with Brett and Daniel and went to bed. We had to get up early as we were having a dinner party and we hadn’t gotten anything yet and the main course (BB-Q pork ribs) took close to eight hours to cook.

So off we went to Harris Teater at 8 in the morning on a Saturday morning to go food shopping. $450 dollars later we had everything, shrimp for a pre-dinner shrimp plate, scallops for the starter, apples and cranberries for the desert and 14 bottles of wine for the whole meal. Here was the menu:

Amuse bouche was a collie flower with cumin and parmesan cheese soup.

The starter was seared sea scallops on top of potato cakes on a bed of an assiago, peppercorn sauce with drizzled olive oil topped with cream freche and caviar.

The main was slow cooked pork ribs with mashed sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts cooked with bacon.

Desert was an apple and cranberry crisp with vanilla ice cream. And some chocolates that Derek brought over.

The next morning we counted the bottles, I think it came out to 15 bottles for 10 people with one not drinking. Well that was definitely what I would call a successful party. I ended up going to bed before most people did. I was just exhausted after cooking all day and I was l little too drunk to stay awake. Mind you it was twelve midnight and I had been up since six that morning. I was going to take a nap but our friend Evegeny from VA beach came up for the party and showed up right with I was drifting away.

Oh well.

Sunday wasn’t our usual Sunday. Thanks goodness. I think we’ve gone off the whole drunken brunch thing at our house. We had a full house at that point as a few people stayed over. We agreed to go to brunch at Logan Tavern, some more friends came over and we headed that way. When we got there the was a 45 minute wait so we went to Makato instead. Ten of us total and we got sat right away. It was fun.

It’s amazing how quickly a buzz will come back when you have a cocktail the day after a heavy night. We were supposed to go get a Christmas tree and do the Christmas cards but that wasn’t happening that Day. We ended up going back to Rob’s house and having a sauna. We then got invited to another friend’s house for another party. We stayed there for a bit and then I was ready to go home but got talked into going out for Thai food. That was a very good thing. I came back and enjoyed the rest of the night. Dave and I were in bed by 10:30 so everything was good.

Monday I get to work and get a message from one of the guys I work with

Him “you here?”
Me “Um, yes, why?”
Him “When are we leaving”
Me “oh shit, I forgot about that”

Anyway, we updated some software on Friday here at our main office. Everything went pretty well except we forgot about a remote office in Arnold MD. That office is connected to our servers by a dedicated t-1 line. It’s not fast enough to install software over. So we had made plans on Friday to go to Arnold on Monday to sneaker net to the computers.

I walked home and got the car. Came back to the office and picked up my coworker. We drove out to the eastern shore and did the install on their computers. We were done and back at the office around 3ish so I dropped my coworker off and went home.

One thing I forgot to mention was that Dave had tasked me with getting a Christmas tree while I had the car and was out and about. On New York avenue there is a place but unfortunately I drove right by it and didn’t think about it. I tell you this because it fits into the story latter. So as I said before I dropped my coworker off and really didn’t go home, I went Christmas tree shopping. On a Monday, after a big Christmas tree buying weekend.

To say depressing is an understatement.

I first went to the local charity lot on 17th street. Oh my god, it was picked over like a turkey on thanksgiving. That and the fact there was no one there to give my money too made me decide go to the Home Depot.

It wasn’t any better. Dave and I went there two weeks ago and it was packed with good looking trees. We decided we didn’t want the tree in our house that early so we didn’t get one. I finally found one that might do, tried to get someone to help but no one was around. I picked it up, went inside and then got into a line that was the shortest of three huge lines. All the construction workers where there buying stuff for their projects so they had lots of stuff. And there were at least 8 or more people in each line. I gave up and took the tree back and went home in despair.

By the time I had gotten home I had decided that we didn’t need a tree and the it was the most bizarre custom anyway.

Take a perfectly good LIVE tree. Kill it, Bring into your home, put lights on it, and then bizarre ornimates. Throw out in two weeks.

Repeat process next year.

So anyway I get home, Dave listens to this and says that we can go back out to the New York avenue place and get one later. After all we do have the niece coming over and we needed to get one for her sake.

So at 7:30pm we head out there. All the trees they have and standing in stands with water in them. The trees a beautiful and in good shape.

But not cheap.

We pick one and this guy comes to help us. He’s talking to us with an east Indian accent, island accent. I talk to him for a bit without making eye contact but when I finally do I’m little bit freaked out. One of his eyes was completely white. I’m not sure what causes that but it freaks me out when I see it. So from then on I had a hard time looking at him. He finally get the tree and cuts off the bottom part and off to home we go. Total price with tipping him, $80. It will be worth it when Dave’s niece comes over.

So we now have a Christmas tree in the house, tonight I will put lights on it that I purchased on the way to work. We then have dinner with friends out. Wednesday we have a friend’s birthday party to go to and then a stopover at Dave’s brother’s new house. Thursday I’m having a dinner party for some people from work and then Friday my mom arrives for the holiday. We’ve decided to have an open house on Saturday for drinks and help on decorating the tree.

So, if you don’t hear from me for a week or two I think you’ll understand.

Happy holidays.