The Christmas tree Caper

So last night Scott and I were reminiscing about some of the days when we were just newly weds. We lived in Vegas at the time along with my sister and her husband, not with them but near them. We as couples, were inseparable though. We did something every weekend. We were either on the ski boat or taking trip to Utah or just hanging out in Vegas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what your thinking right now, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Actually this story took place in Utah so I'm free to share it.
I actually laughed so hard last night I almost peed my pants, so I thought I better put this on my blog so I have it in writing for future re-telling. And who knows maybe it is one of those things where you just had to be there. You might not think its funny at all. So this ones just for me.
But here ya have it... The Christmas tree Caper....
So every year, as a tradition we would go to Utah and get our Christmas tree cutting license, then head up to the mountains and cut down our own fresh, perfect Christmas tree. It was a super fun tradition, where we would get my brother-in-laws four wheelers loaded up and our warmest snow clothes on and head up to Cedar Mountain for the day to four wheel in the snow and pick out the perfect tree.
So every thing was perfect, we had been having a blast on the four wheelers, and we had hiked far off the path to find the perfectly shaped tree. Actually I think we "topped" a large tree to get the perfect top so there were no flaws at all. It was perfect! (I think that was where it all went wrong, since topping is against the tree cutting rules.).
So we loaded it up and tied it to the top of the truck and we all got in to head home. From where we were to St. George it was a good hour and a half drive, if not more. We were so careful to wrap the tree in plastic and tie it carefully to the truck. Now thinking back I don't quite remember why we tied it to the truck rather than just putting it in the bed (maybe that was our second mistake).
We set off on our trip home and had the music playing and we were having a good old time.
After a while we noticed that every car that passed us was staring at us in utter horror. Not just the casual glance to the other car but gawking and staring at us, some were even pointing!
We finally started honking at people and waving and making sarcastic faces to them. It was every car! We couldn't imagine that we looked that ridiculous driving down the highway in a truck. Granted there were six of us crammed into the truck, including my sisters kids. But it wasn't that out of the ordinary.
I bet we had traveled for about 45 minuets when I glanced in the side mirror of the truck, only to see our "perfect" Christmas tree bouncing around on the highway. Still tied to the truck! So THAT is why everyone was looking at us with such disdain.
I'm laughing at it now, just thinking of it. So as we pulled off the highway to assess the damage, we discovered that one whole side of the trunk at the base had been shaved to a sharp point. On that same side, all the branches on the lower third of the tree were either gone, or had no needles left on them. We could only laugh, because of the way the situation played out from our ends. We loaded the tree back up and re wrapped it really well, tying it better this time. We made it back to St. George, with out further mishap and reloaded the fragile half of our tree onto our Blazer (mine and Scott's). Wrapping it again very carefully.
By the time we go home to Vegas which was another two hours, and uncovered our tree, there were almost no pine needles left on any part of the tree. Apparently wrapping the tree and then driving at high speeds isn't the best idea (Third Mistake). The plastic blowing in the wind and beating against the tree knocked off all the needles. Note to self: don't wrap trees in plastic, they're used to wind, not plastic beating on them. There would be no hiding that bald spot in the corner!
It was our first Christmas after we married we were clueless. We had a TOTAL Charlie Brown tree. We didn't replace it just for the story it told and laughed all season long, till finally the sad tree lost its last two needles and we had to say good bye.
Ill have to confess, the next year, we just bought a fake tree.
The picture I attached isn't the actual tree, but pretty close.