Preparing for Christmas with my brother

I'm at "home" in NH with my parents for the holidays. Dad and Jamie drove through two Nor'easters in order to pick me up from Grandma's so I may not rush back south anytime too soon.

Have you ever had a younger brother? One who has gone through a silent, brooding teenage phase, headed off to college and then returned a few years later as a well-spoken, happy, hard-working young man? Jamie has knocked my socks off thus far. He's using great vocabulary words, cooking breakfast, sharing coffee and openly sharing stories. This morning, he and I hiked over to the overgrown Christmas tree farm that's on the other side of the church property that we live on. We found a tree that's twice the size as Jamie with his arms up, thus about 15 ft. tall. He cut it down easily then we started dragging it back to the house through 2 1/2 ft. of snow. We got it up a hill, then down the path, leaving it hidden on the trail until we could tie it to the back of a car and drag it through the church parking lot and up our steep driveway. Here's the game plan (don't tell my mom): We're planning to cut the tree in half and set up the bottom half in our living room where we usually set up a tree. Jamie's brilliant idea is to set up the top of the tree on the next floor-- in Mom's room! :-) She's going to have her own Christmas tree! Hopefully we'll drag the tree up to the house tonight, let it dry overnight, then set them up and decorate them tomorrow with five days to spare. Now I just have to get on the Christmas cards and wrapping gifts...