This is an I-Heart podcast.

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because they are indeed some of our favorites,

and they're some of your favorites too.

Jim Johnson is a longtime pastor who lives in Rogers, Minnesota.

Pastor Jim's heart-moving story, Everett's last Christmas Carol,

needed a follow-up.

Here he is again, Jim Johnson, this time with the Christmas tree story.

Hey, have you ever had bad luck with Christmas trees?

Me too.

I have conflicts with holiday evergreens.

If I were in a recovery group and I probably should be, I would say it this way.

Hi, I'm Jim, and I have issues with Christmas trees.

I mean, I'm a Minnesota guy, a holly jolly father and grandfather, big time lover of Christmas,

a heavy hitting broker of holiday cheer, and possibly one of the biggest

fans of Yuletide carols in America, but Christmas trees have generally gotten the best of me.

Here's part of my confession.

I want stuffed 10 ponderosa pines into a 15 passenger Dodge van on a warm day in Santa

Paula, California for a day of services in a barn.

We drove 40 minutes with those trees sweating bullets and our van chugging home slowly through

Ventura and Oxnard and into Camarillo down the 101 it was

...