Saturday, November 27, 2010

O Christmas Tree 2010

I loved our Christmas tree in Georgia. Yes, it was fake, but it was 9 feet tall and looked awesome in our 20-foot tall living room. Besides that, it already had lights on it. But we knew it would not fit in the 8-foot tall living room of our rental home, so we let it go for about $2.00 at our garage sale.

I had resigned myself to the 2010 plan to simply decorate with our two Charlie Brown trees. However, as Thanksgiving approached and with it the day after--our traditional day for setting up Christmas...and as I continued to ponder Christmas with those two Charlie Brown trees...well, I just couldn't do it. So we did something we haven't done since before children turned our calm lives upside down: we got a real tree. Now don't go thinking that since we are Northerners now we went trampling through fields of snow to chop our own tree down. Nope, there's a place called Home Depot that already has them chopped and ready to go.

We chose one we thought would fit in here. It fits, though barely, and our little angel topper shall have to take the year off unless she is willing to sit atop our tree headless. I am enjoying the tree with its subtle pine smell and unique branches. As for the Charlie Brown trees, well, one of them did make it into our family room.

As a self-proclaimed control freak--especially at Christmastime--I was more than a little sheepish in telling Mark I needed him to dig one of the Charlie Brown trees out of storage so the children would have their own tree to decorate. It's just that the real tree would not fit all of the ornaments, you see. And by that I mean that it just cannot hold all of the jingle bells and cat ornaments and trains and trucks.

Audrey placing ornament


I did handle the whole thing without freaking out, so perhaps my control freak is becoming a bit calmer. At any rate, both trees were decorated, and we carried on with some of our other traditions. There were big cups of hot chocolate topped with way too much whipped cream because there were no little marshmallows.

Audrey hot chocolate


We then read from Lisa Whelchel's The ADVENTure of Christmas about the origins of the tree as an important part of Christmas. And we read our traditional story A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree. As I have mentioned before, this story about friendship focuses on one Christmas tree who never gets chosen. Because he is older than all of the other trees in this field, he is much, much taller. This fact was not lost on the Princess. After I finished reading the story, I asked, "Is there anything we can learn from this story?"

She immediately piped up: "That people should always get a tree that isn't too tall?"

Her answer was as cute as her pictures. As usual she was the only one who wanted much to do with any photos. I forced the children to at least pose for the obligatory picture in front of the tree.

4 by Christmas tree

6 comments:

Amy @ Cheeky Cocoa Beans said...

That is a GORGEOUS tree! I've never had a real Christmas tree (allergies/asthma run in my family, so even if I weren't allergic--and I am--my mom and brother were).

Hmmmm...another new tradition? Having a live tree? :)

BTW, I seriously think we would be in so much trouble if we got your Princess and my Princess together!! :)

dclouser said...

Love the pic of the kids! Sounds like you are in the swing of Christmas already. I'm unmotivated with no kids coming home for the occasion. Real trees do smell SO nice. The only problem is at the end when you have to clean up all the fallen pine needles!

tsinclair said...

You had a tree for sale at your garage sale and didn't tell me!

We have always used a live tree - the first 7 or 8 years we went to tree farms and cut one down. It was much more expensive, but much more memorbale. The boys still talk about it.

The last few years we have headed to Home Depot as well. So much easier and less expensive.
However, after all of us saying no artificial for years...we were all actually wanting one this year. My only problem was the ones I liked were $200+.

So we headed to HD today and got another live one. It does smell good, I am just tired of putting on the lights. :-)

@nnie said...

ahh, there are cons of having a real tree, but the pros are worth it! i love your pictures and the forced one cracked me up, because i do the same to my kiddos all the time. i love following you as you adjust to your new home. keep the posts coming, and one more thing, i too, am impressed at your motivation in getting the Christmas spirit going so quickly. Our REAl tree won't get here for at least another week (due to hubby being out of town for 10 days! eek!) Blessing, Blog Friend!

CrossView said...

BAHAHAHA! Control freak. Yeah, that used to be me. And then life got in the way. See how sneaky that life thing is??!!

We used to get a real tree every year. But it got to be too much for us. The warm climate is just not conducive to a live cut tree. The Arctic is, though.

Unknown said...

Remember, Water! Water! Water! Check it twice a day! Chopping down a tree is not only fun, but the fresh tree lasts longer, too. Plus, when you select a nine foot tree for a house with eight foot ceilings, all you have to do is take a little off the top! Not that I’ve ever made that mistake…