Reason Number 4...

...that Lee is the best husband ever - The Tree.  My love of enormous Christmas trees is well known, well documented and longstanding.  In high school, my friends used to plan a visit to my parents' every Christmas just to gawk at the monster tree that my dad was able to cram into the living, wired to the wall, of course! (some of those same friends skyped with us over the weekend to get a glimpse of this year's tree (and mock Lee!))  So, in fairness to me, there was complete disclosure of my "tree issues" prior to our marriage - and he married me anyway.
Lee doesn't complain about the Tree.  He doesn't try to talk me out of getting a big tree.  Last year, our tree stand broke from the weight of the tree (and the tree fell over), so he had me buy a hard-core, industrial stand for future trees - rather than point out that perhaps we should just get a smaller tree.  This year, he vetoed two other trees because they were smaller than the Tree we ended up getting.  After I made the final decision, he spent about 15 minutes cutting it down; then he dragged it out of the woods to the trail; and then he dragged it on a tarp about 100 yards to the bailer (where it kept getting stuck, causing the bailer to stall).  At the base of Candy Cane Hill, he enlisted the help of two workers to get the Tree on the top of the truck; and he needed Peter's help to get it off of the truck and into the tree stand.  Let me be clear - this is the first year that he has needed any help (other than mine) with the tree.  It easily weighs several hundred pounds.  The roof of our Explorer will never be the same.
And all of this is a long way of saying that Lee is simply the greatest - because he lets me be me, he lets me have exactly what I want at Christmas, which is the biggest tree that we can fit into our house.  Thank you Lee!!!  Now, about that addition.....we could really use cathedral ceilings....

You can only see his legs - he is laying on the ground, in the snow, cutting down the tree.

Now that's not the kind of Christmas spirit I was hoping for...

Beginning the long haul.

People were actually stopping him to ask about the tree....

Peter and Lee, carrying the tree from the truck to the back of the house.

Getting the tree into the stand.

There was a lot of branch trimming after they got the tree into the stand.

The release.