Every year my spouse and I have skipped joyfully into the woods, found the perfect Christmas tree and split it down.
After we had kids, we would bundle them up and take them along.
Now that the kids are grown, I am beginning to be less gleeful about going out to split down our tree. I prefer to remain warm and cozy in our house where the Heating and Air Conditioning system runs gleefully. My spouse still wants to go out in the cold, and I told him I would go with him if it was okay to stay in the vehicle with the furnace running. He told me I was being a grinch and I had to go out and help with the tree. I watched him shudder when I asked if I could use one of those portable a/c volt heaters. He jokingly mentioned that they had personal oil furnaces I could locate in my gloves and in my socks. They even had oil furnaces that could be stuck on the inside of the coat. When I went on Amazon to look for the personal oil furnaces he couldn’t believe it. He abruptly realized how drastic I was about having part oil furnaces or personal oil furnaces with me if he wanted me to go with him. It makes me wonder if it is my getting older or the arthritis that I suffer from that makes me so ornery. Maybe I am just getting over the thrill of walking through knee high snow and dragging the tree back to the van. There have been times when we had skipped merrily into the woods for an hour then been forced to haul a tree back through the woods for another hour to get it to the van. It was a fun tradition when we were young parents, but now the only way it would be fun again would be by having the personal oil furnaces or staying in the car with the heater running.