My friend posted on Facebook that her favorite Christmas movie is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation starring Chevy Chase as Clark Griswald. Hahahaha! I can not even type the title and Chevy Chase’s name without chuckling to myself at the hilarity contained in this film.
Do you find this movie funny? I think I find it so riotous because my life resembles Christmas Vacation so much.
This year’s Christmas tree is only 9’6″, chopped down from a tree farm, but twelve years ago, our first Christmas in Parks, Arizona, we, then only a family of four, ventured into the Coconino National Forest and chopped down a Griswald Family Christmas Tree. We were thrilled that with a $15 Christmas Tree Pass, we could cut down our Christmas tree. We did remember a chain saw so we didn’t have to dig out the tree roots Griswald style, but the tree was a beast. We had a Dodge Dakota Quad Cab truck at the time and the tree, when strapped to the roof, was anchored by the stump to the rear bumper and the tree top anchored to the front bumper. Trees really do look smaller in the forest than they do when you get them home.
This tree was so big. How big? Once we somehow wedged the tree through our front door into our tiny cabin we called home, my husband had to bring a chainsaw, into the house a la Griswald, and chop off at least a foot just to get the tree erect. Our home was small but it had really a high ceiling too. Once the chainsaw was turned off, my husband, channeling Clark, screwed the Christmas tree base directly to the floorboards so it wouldn’t topple in the night. He rationalized that we were going to replace the flooring anyway at some point, what’s the harm in a few screw holes? For the record, the floors weren’t replaced for another 2 years.
To get the star on top of this monster, I stood on the partial upstairs level, leaning way over the edge while my husband pulled the tree top toward me while standing on a ladder. Our children, ages five and almost one, watched as their stupid parents pulled off this stunt. Yes, children, we are the Griswalds.
I will be posting a Christmas’ Past, Present and Future blog and will have photos of this tree soon, I promise!.
Having watched Christmas Vacation recently while laid out sick on the couch with my kids, my favorite part relative to 2013 was, of course, the squirrel attack. I AM NOT ALONE! I replayed this scene at least 3 times until the boys were convinced I completely lost my mind and begged for mercy. Add squirrel attacks to our Griswald family resemblance.
We have never burned down a tree (nor will we), I’ve never burned a turkey, we do not overly decorate the outside with 25,000 lights causing a power outage, but I do have to flip a switch to get our outdoor lights to turn on. The likeness between our two families is uncanny.
If you have never seen National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation or if it has been awhile, sit down and laugh with us as we just want to celebrate Christmas.
multi-hyphenated-me 