A tale of two Christmas trees

The kids and Colleen got in on December 23 from New Mexico. Colleen picked up this tree on Christmas Eve. We had a nice dinner after I got off work, then came home to put up the tree. Unfortunately we discovered that we had lost the tree holder. Undaunted, Colleen grabbed an empty trash can and put the tree in it, covering up most of the trash can with a skirt. We had lots of laughs about our truly redneck Christmas. The kids each opened one present, then we retired to bedrooms to finish wrapping presents. After we had gone to sleep, the two oldest boys, Thomas and Erik, snuck out of the house about two a.m. Christmas morning, cut this big tree down on our property, brought it inside and quietly trimmed it. They wouldn't tell us where they had gotten the tree, so I was worried they may have cut it down on a neighbor's property. When the sun came up, I saw their tracks in the snow. After all the presents were opened (three hours later), I followed the tracks and saw where they had chopped down the tree.