O, Tannenbaum!

I bought a Christmas tree today. First time I have done that. I usually don't get into "the Christmas spirit," if that means a bunch of decorations in your house. The tree is silver and about four feet tall. I bought it at Metro, which is like Sam's Club. You have to have a card to shop there. I had noticed the tree when I was in there earlier today. It stuck out because it was silver. All the others were green, more like real trees. This one was like a real tree too, its needles were resplendent with the flourescent lights forty feet above.

I went back for the tree a few hours later, after I had run my decision by my trusty friend, Darin, whose opinion is invaluable at times like these. I realized at once that this was going to be a little trickier than I had at first thougt. It was not as if I could just walk out of there with their floor model silver Christmas tree. There must be a box somewhere. We looked around for a box that might contain it, but to no avail. I realized I did not know how to say "silver" or "Christmas tree," so the prospects of asking for help were growing slimmer by the minute. Looking at the floor model, though, we found the words (which I have since mentally blocked) for metallic silver and began looking for a box with those words printed on it. Still no luck. I got depserate and began looking for some assistance from the Metro staff.

A young man walked by, looking like he probably wasn't real excited about trying to understand how he could help me, but I seized him and asked, "Where is the box for the metallic silver Christmas tree?" He pointed to a large stack of boxes about three inches from me and said, "Right there." I looked at the boxes, which all had pictures of verdant, stately, realistic-looking trees on them and said, "No, I would like the silver, metallic tree." "Yes, that's the one," he assured me. I pointed at the picture and Darin gave it a shot, "This one's not silver. We are looking for a silver metallic tree." I really respect the salesman for maintaining a relatively calm demeanor with the two of us. He pointed to the side of the box, which, in the very words we had learned, said, "SILVER METALLIC CHRISTMAS TREE." Oh.

The man walked off and we thanked him, watched to make sure he was out of sight, then opened the box to see if it did, in fact, contain the desired silver metallic Christmas tree. And it did. So. We spent the next few minutes shopping for tinsel, ornaments, a star, and now have a very dignified silver, metallic Christmas tree in our school room. Pictures soon to follow.