trimming the tree

We did finally get a tree about a week into December. Growing up, we most often would go out to a tree farm and pick out a real tree. Some of my fondest memories are of Saturday afternoons braving the frigid cold to get the tree. This year the rain we had prevented us from cutting down our own tree, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have looked quite as nice as our purchase from Lowes. Our first tree together was one we cut down, and golly was it the saddest Charlie Brown tree! This one’s definitely an upgrade. The smell of a fresh fir in the living room and the sight of a lit tree makes it look a lot more like Christmas around here, even though we haven’t had a flake more of snow.

The boys and I were impatient to decorate it as soon as it made its way in the house, so we skipped the lights (since we were short a strand), and the boys went to work clumping all the ornaments in a few spots, which I promptly had to rearrange. Since then, the boys have been sneaking ornament moves in at least hourly. :)

Oh, I said we were short a strand of lights. Well, it can't be too hard to find boring old white lights in the stores this time of year, right? I had the hubby look at two stores, then I went to three more before finding the LAST stinking box of them. Every store seemed to be carrying such a huge selection of the LED/solar types of lights, that the plain, old-fashioned incadescent miniature bulbs are becoming a thing of the past. Better stock up on those bulb replacements and fuses!

I even got inspired enough to make a star for the top of the tree. I’m really bad at following instructions or having the patience enough to sew patterns, but it still turned out okay. Although we still have to lop about six inches off the top of the tree to make it look less spindly up there!

Gotta get my fingers back in the cookie dough… Cookie baking this year has been about 75% successful. Oh for my mother’s magic touch in the kitchen!