Farolitos in Santa Fe.

Every Christmas, we head up to the Mesa and cut down our own Christmas tree. We usually get one so large that the Star on the top of the tree is way up in the clerestory windows of the house. It's something we all look forward to. Our annual family Christmas tradition.

And then we realized something. We're the owners of two, not quite six months old, heeler puppies who love nothing more than to romp and play in our living room.

Have you ever had a 12 foot Christmas tree with all the trimmings crash in the middle of the night onto the floor? Glass bulbs shattering, tinsel tearing, jingle bells rolling across the floor? That happened to us last year, because we (well, I?) got greedy and dragged home a monstrously huge Christmas tree, and our stand wasn't quite buff enough to handle that big boy.

We could just see our two tenacious heeler puppies chasing each other around this year' s gigantic Christmas tree, sending it careening to the floor. (Something we don't want to repeat.) So, unfortunately, no fresh-cut Christmas tree for us. We're settling for one of the tabletop variety, at least for this year, until the puppies grow up a little more.