O' Christmas Tree

This year we got a REAL Christmas tree!

Of course, every other tree was real too - just really fake. For several reasons, we didn't want a fake or artificial tree this year (check out some of the reasons here). I heard from a good friend that one of the local fire departments was selling trees for a very good price. So off we went to pick a tree. Going to the "lot" reminded me of all the years my family would go get a tree. Some years we cut our own down, other times we went to a pre-cut lot. But we always had a real tree.

The tree sat in a bucket in the garage for a week to soak up some water. A nice aside: I have a very festive smelling garage now! We finally got the tree up after a comedy of Murphy's Law errors that involved going out in a snow storm to buy a bigger tree stand. I started to put lights on around 9:30pm and we got to bed around midnight. Not the plan AT ALL but a fun-family time.

I love waking up to the smell of pine. I love looking at the real tree with all of the hodge-podge ornaments. Our tree doesn't have a theme but every ornament has a story. Beside it (on top of the piano because we got kids and pets) is the beautiful Nativity given to us by Randy's grandparents. Below is Thomas the Train given to Gina from my Dad. Soon Santa will visit surround the tree with presents.