Over the hill and through the woods. Today we went shopping for a Christmas tree. Every year we put up a real tree and ever year it seems that there are less and less places to buy one. We used to have two nurserys, the boy scouts, Kmart, Walmart, and a few people that set up tree stands on a vacant lot to pick from. Now we have Home Depot and Walmart. There is a nursery that sells real trees but they are still alive and you have to plant them. Not any tree will do either, we like a Colorado Blue Spruce. We went to Walmart first and just as we pulled up the garden center they were closing the gate. We asked if we could buy a tree yet and the two ladies said we could buy one but we would have to carry it out through the store. I would of been able to walk around in the garden center but going through the store would be to much for me so Penny went in on her own. She said when she got to the garden center the same ladies didn’t want to let her go outside and look at the trees, something about company policy. She went out anyway but decided she wouldn’t lug a tree all the way back through the store. We left there and went to Home Depot, they didn’t have the type of tree we liked. We went on to the nursery but they didn’t have any fresh cut trees. So we drove 30 miles east of Hobbs to Seminole Tx. The Walmart in Seminole is a small store so naturally they didn’t have any trees. We drove around town and couldn’t find any place selling trees. We ate lunch at Dairy Queen and asked the ladies working there if there was any place in town that sold Christmas trees. NEWS FLASH You can’t buy a Christmas tree in Seminole Tx. Penny tried to get me to head north toward Lubbock Tx. but that wasn’t going to happen. On the way back to Hobbs I looked up Walmart’s phone number and gave the store manager a call, he was nice as pie and told me to ask for a manager when we got back. We talked it over and decided to give them another chance. The gate at the garden center was still locked when we got back so Penny went in through the store. There were different people working in the garden center and nice as pie. Penny picked out her tree and they opened the gate and loaded it in the truck for us.
Thanksgiving was a big hit at our house, we had a house full with plenty of good food to go around. My smoked turkey was just right. This was the first year for me to try the brining method before I smoked it. I believe it added juice to the meat. There were a few other experiments that didn’t go over as well. We tried a sweet potato dish with baked banana’s that we saw on the Food Network, it was alright but tasted too much like banana bread. I missed the melted marsh mellows on top of the old sweet potato dish. Our son tried a new green bean dish but even he wouldn’t eat them. Other than those two dishes everything else was a hit.
