Ghost of Christmas Past: The Charlie Brown Tree

We had all been sick the first two weeks of December, and hadn't felt up to getting a tree. But Erma was two years old, and I felt strongly that she should have one. And so we headed for a tree lot on a subzero day. Erma and I stayed in the car while Enrique went to choose a tree. He quickly pointed at one, and I nodded. Anything to get out of the cold.

As we set it up the next day, we noticed that something wasn't right. Our tree had scoliosis. Its trunk was extremely crooked. We set it up anyways, and that night we heard a crash. The tree had tipped over. A few days later, Erma was trying to see what the back of the tree looked like, and it tipped over again.

Anybody who looked at our tree did so with tilted head, trying to get the angle right.

It was a sorry looking tree, but we loved it anyways.