We purchased and trimmed our tree this weekend. And now our house smells of delicous fresh pine and our living room glows in the evening with little white lights. Yummy.
It was a chilly night and we all got bundled up with sweaters and hats. When we got to the lot we were the only people there. We were able to find a beautiful tree in a jiff- not too tall and not too wide. I don't think I'll ever get over buying trees in SoCal. The palm trees around the lot, the teenagers loading the tree onto your car wearing hats, coats and shorts. Something very funny about that! In the end, these quirks don't detract from the fun and excitement created by this act. A Christmas tree in the house seems to signal that the season has truly begun.
My ideas about decorations have changed since having an extremely rambunctious 2 year old. While I still love the idea of a "decorated" tree - one designed and carried out by mom, I realize that's not going to work for us now. When we first brought the tree in and got out the decorations, Elias found an old candy cane and we didn't hear a peep out of him for the rest of the night. By next morning he had started to explore the tree and its ornaments. So far, we've only lost 3. For some reason he wants to see if the small wooden angels can actually fly.
As we get into the season, I started to feel exhausted before it had even begun (it's so stressful financially). But a good friend reminded me again that we are building memories for our children. These are the times that children cherish and remember. And when we build beautiful memories, we build family. And I knew this was true as I watched Addison take out each decoration so lovingly before placing them on the tree. She remembered each piece and knew where most of them came from. Her joy and the sparkle of excitement in her eyes are all the holiday decorating I need!
3 comments:
Thanks for the comment. I know what you mean. I couldn't even bring myself to type the word 'vampire' in my post...probably because Ryan has been teasing me incessantly, asking if vampire romance novels are my new favorite genre. This from the man that watches a show called Bionic Woman! :)
I really like your tree, it's pretty. Our fake tree depresses me sometimes. I miss the smell of a real tree...the smell of Christmas. Though I'm convinced if we had a real tree Kate would break all the branches off. She has broken ornaments that I didn't even know were breakable.
Take care!
Hey, I can't post what Christmas I am making on my blog, since the recipients read it, so I thought I'd do it here. Actually I am finishing a cookbook of all my recipes. I have so many good ones(if I do say so myself) and my two sisters both recently got married, so I am making them cookbooks (I'll give it to my brother and sisters in law too, I think). Lots of cooking and tweaking recipes, it's actually really slow, I can only cook when Hadley is asleep. Anyway, I don't know if that counts as craftiness, but there it is.
We too put up our tree this week. We had the missionaries over for dinner and they helped. We have a lovely big noble fur - trees are chaper in San Bernardino than Thousand Oaks! It smells so wonderful. Hamish loves it and eats the lower branches. That makes him smell good too! Let me know what the Amber schedule is. We have a storm coming tomorrow so not sure if we can get out,but can try. I'm trying to get a painting done for her to take back to your mom.
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