O Christmas Tree!

For the past 6 years, we've had a fake tree and a Yankee Candle (for the pine scent, of course).  Matt hated the fake tree.  He simply relented to my wish for Christmas decorating convenience pre-Katie.  And the past 2 years she's been too young to know the difference. 

When we moved this summer and were packing up the Christmas items from our old house Matt said (direct quote here) "I hate this thing, and I'm definitely not making the effort to pack it, transport it, store it in the attic of another house, and use it again."  There went my fake tree.

With no fake tree - and no hope of me getting a new one anytime soon - we decided it would be a fun to head to a Christmas tree farm, select, and cut down our own.  Saturday morning we headed out together on a perfect day.  Katie split her time at the tree farm doing one of 2 things:  1) Making a nest of leaves/brush.  Then finding and putting acorns (which she called her eggs) into the nest, then sitting on them to keep them warm.  In case you are wondering...."Make Way for Ducklings" is a favorite book in our house right now.  Or 2)  Finding every tree in the field that was her height and insisting it was the best tree by far....and would fit perfectly in our living room.

Eventually Matt and I picked what we thought was a good tree.  Together we sawed it down, carried it out of the field, packed it onto the car and headed home.  Once home, Matt started to trim the tree and get the leaves out before we brought it inside.  Except while he was shaking the leaves out  ----  he BROKE the tree!  Not kidding...totally broke it!  A good 1.5 to 2 feet gone.  I just stood there looking at him.  Couldn't  believe it.

After some debate, we realized we were going to have to go out for a SECOND tree.  We knew we didn't have enough time to drive back out to the Christmas Tree farm and cut another one down (besides Katie would have been beyond impatient at that point).  So, pre-cut tree shop here we come....and $85 later...we have one tree up and one in our garage.  Matt was so frustrated that the day didn't turn out how he imagined.  Personally, I thought it was a good/funny story to tell Katie when she gets a little older and can appreciate the humor.

Here she is....our 2012 Christmas Tree (still needs the tree topper)!  Hope you all are having as much fun preparing for Santa Claus as we are!!!  :-)