Christmas in Issaquah was the BEST! The tree was, like, 100 feet tall! No, really! It went all the way to the top of the stairs and the stairs went up, like, five stories! Seriously! Okay, well, it seemed that way to a little squirt. So, I’ll concede the tree wasn’t 100 feet tall, but it was, and this is after a fact checking mission with the mom’s to make sure my memories are somewhat accurate, always between 18 and 20 feet tall and positively did go to the top of the stairs, which traversed both stories of the house. Two, five…who’s counting?

In all seriousness, the whole Christmas tree thing really stands out in my memory. We tried to get as much of the feeling we could of the experience after my dad bailed and we moved to Texas, going to the Wolfe Nursery every year to buy a real “live” tree, even if it was a Scotch Pine, which was the cheapest ones they had, but, of course, it was never quite the same. The tree in Issaquah was cut from the surrounding woods every year, a ginormous fir or spruce. The vestibule was open right beside where the stairs rose to the second floor, and that’s where the tree presided in all it’s majestic splendor. The ornaments, some from my mothers grandparents, were kept in the closet under the stairs. It was the “Christmas Closet” and the opening of the door was a ritual. The decorating began at noon on Thanksgiving day. Santa had gone past Macy’s, by that time, in the Thanksgiving Day Parade and that, my friends, was the official, I say official start of the Christmas season! It took days to decorate that tree. When my dad was around, he’d go up the ladder on the one side, while the rest of us decorated from the staircase. When he wasn’t around, mom did the ladder thing. Mom did it most of the time, and that’s what I remember. The decorating was always topped off with icicles that my mom, bless her heart, tried valiantly to get us to put on one by one so they’d hang neatly…HA! We usually stood at the top of the stairs and threw the clumps down over the tree. We tried to explain how much more “real” that looked, but the fact was a six and seven year old’s patience for decorating hugemongus trees lasts only so long! We had places to be and presents to sneak a peek at!