Thursday, January 8, 2009

Belated Happy New Year's

It has occurred to me that I have married into a clan of pyromaniac hillbillies. If it can be burnt, it happens here. Thank goodness this does not extend to our grand mansion primitive hut that we call home.

A new tradition has emerged in redneck land where the men douse the Christmas trees with gasoline and set them ablaze. This year being no exception, the husbands bided their time until New Year's eve. Only then are allowed to abscond with the de-ornamented trees and drag them to the fire pit for the countdown celebration.

With the video camera in hand, I captured this on film for posterity, or stupidity, whichever fits best. Warning: No actors were used in the making of this video. This video is about six minutes, post editing. I got about 15 minutes on film of this event, so I have spared you some mindless details. Not that there is much left over to mind. Maybe our close family and friends would enjoy it best. I am not really sure. If you want to see the trees go up in flames it starts somewhere after the 4 minute mark.



Post Script:

So if you were watching the timer, it takes approximately 2 minutes to burn two Christmas trees complete with a dousing of gasoline. And if you were wondering, NO there was not any flame retardant on the second tree. My husband Mike is just a smart ass.

Trevor, the alien boy, woke up in the middle of the night screaming and having nightmares about "the aliens" and "something scratching at the window." There are no trees outside his window.

Wyatt, my son, went to bed in tears because we burned the tree. He showed no signs of disturbance other than his brief objection that we caught on film, but then broke down sobbing when he climbed into bed. I felt kind of bad afterward. He really liked the tree more than we knew.

I guess we forget just how fragile these little kids are at times.

9 comments:

Grand Pooba said...

Wow. Can I be a part of your family? I think I'd fit right in. Aliens and Farts are a regular topic of conversation over my family's dinner table. The burning of trees however we have yet to try! But if my husband saw that blow torch, he'd be all about it I'm sure!

Grand Pooba said...

Good editing too!

Anonymous said...

Happy Belated New Years to you and your Redneck family! heehee

Michelle said...

He He He. Very funny. My hubby does the same exact thing every year with our tree. The guys seems to really love it. Don't ask me why, but they do. LOL!!

Terri said...

I won't even tell you how the 4th of July looks on occasion in these parts... we'll just say that the Christmas tree bonfire is actually pretty tame! :) Hope your little one feels better about it now!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, my hubby grew up in a teensy tiny town out in the country and occassionally his hillbilly side emerges!

PS Can I come be your nanny?! I'm so jealous of your land and you horse!!!!!

Mammatalk said...

What is with men and fire pits?? I think it's something primal.

Julia said...

I am glad to hear that the addiction to fire and primitive burning is not endemic to the men in our family.

Elizabeth Leigh said...

OMG, poor poor Wyatt!! Hopefully, his christmas spirit for next year wasn't damaged by the 'burn tree burn' event!! ha

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