Day 22: Talk about getting into the SPIRIT of things.

As I've mentioned, I love Christmas, but I respect Thanksgiving and I will wait until it's over before decking the halls and stringing up the lights.

But I have to say: I can't wait for Christmas tree getting day!

We get a real tree each year, because I love how it makes the house smell, and I still have flashbacks from my childhood and putting together our artificial tree by sticking branches in the holes in the metal "trunk".

We don't cut our tree down, but we do pick out a fresh cut tree from a local market.

I remember a few years back, speaking to someone on the phone for my job, and we got to talking about the incredible fact that it was almost December, and how we were both planning on getting our Christmas trees that upcoming Saturday.

She said to me: "A few years ago, before we moved to NYC, we used to get a group of people and all go to the Smith Tree Farm and get our tree together. We'd go up there and tailgate first, then go pick out our tree."

Wait. 

What?

As someone who is totally on board with the idea of adding cocktails to almost any event to make it more fun – manicures, yard work, a 5k – I was intrigued with this idea.

Thinking back to the tree farms that I've been to in the past (if you live in Connecticut, you've been to a tree farm), I remember them consisting of large, unpaved areas for parking oversized, tree-carrying vehicles. The same types of vehicles that are perfect for carting coolers and mini grills. I imagined me and Mr. KK cracking open cold ones, sitting in lawn chairs, eating crock pot chili. It would be just like tailgating for a football game – minus the stadium, thousands of other people doing what you're doing, and, well, football.

And while this all sounds like a perfectly normal Saturday afternoon activity, I couldn't help but wonder a few things...

1. Technically, you're not supposed to operate machinery while intoxicated. Does a chainsaw fit under this category? What about a hand saw? Does that constitute as machinery? Technically it's not electrical, so...

2. After drunken tree cutting, do you wake up the next morning and find your tree not as attractive as you did the night before?

3. It has been my experience that everything in the universe is magnified when you're under the influence - like when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the bar's bathroom mirror and can't get over how H-O-T you look (even though your mascara is running halfway down your face, and you've lost the muscle control to hold in your stomach). Do you pick out a tree that's WAY too big for your living room? Do you have a faint remembrance of yourself chanting the phrase, 'Go big or go home!' as you wandered around the tree farm?

4. Did you see a sweet little family cutting down their very first tree together, and the minute they go to capture the moment on film, photobomb them?

5. Do you wake up and check your wallet and realize all of your money is gone? Because you were so in the spirit of the day, that you decided to buy a round of Christmas trees for all your new friends?

Tree tail-gating is an intriguing concept. I wonder if our local tree place would kick us out of the parking lot if we tried it? Or take advantage and convince us to buy not one, not two, but THREE trees?

I'm thinking a nice hoppy IPA pairs nicely with indecision.