A Christmas Tree

After years of pleading and bargaining and begging, we finally got a Christmas tree for Christmas! We were really close last year but then we started looking at tree stands and lights and our budget and we realized we'd have to settle for decorating our little decorative trees one more year.

Well, those trees were pretty beat up when we moved so I made Ben a deal--I'd throw out the trees if he promised we could get a real tree when Christmas rolled around. And when Christmas rolled around I most definitely didn't forget his promise.

I even managed to get him to agree to go "chop our own tree" ... at a U-Cut tree farm. He wasn't up for a trip to the mountains. Maybe someday I'll get him to come around to that one but first I have to figure out how to get him to forget about his very cold mountain-tree-cutting experience as a child.

Anyway, we made it to the tree farm which just so happens to be less than 5 miles from our house.

And now E will have his own cold, tree cutting experience. 

So many trees! "So expensive!" 

We wandered around for quite awhile trying to pick a tree in our budget that still looked half decent. 

Eventually, we found a Fraser Fir and Ben put his manly muscles to good use and sawed through its trunk in a matter of seconds. ... Don't actually use an ax to cut down your Christmas tree. No matter how many Christmas movies you watch where axes are used, a saw is always the way to go. Just FYI.

Ta Da!

And, not only was he able to saw through that HUGE trunk in a matter of seconds, he carried it all the way back to our car (a whopping 50 feet away) all on his own!

We took it up to the front and they "shook it" and "baled it" for us then Ben used his boy scout skills to tie it to our roof. 

The tree made it home safe and sound and was soon decorated with great care.

And then all of the ornaments within E's reach were either thrown or tossed or stomped on so now our tree is beautifully decorated minus the bottom three feet.

I think it gives the tree more personality than a fully decorated tree could ever have. Just like the clothes that are scattered down the stairway give the stairs personality. And the cars found in every nook and cranny of our house give our house personality. Everything says, "There's a 22-month-old little boy that rules here. This is his kingdom.".

10 days until Christmas!