A tree! A really real tree!

I know, I know, I haven't blogged about Thanksgiving yet- but I'm just way too excited to put this off! (Plus everyone but Pyper is sleeping right now so I have a few minutes to sit at the computer.)

Today we got our tree! And not just any tree- a REAL TREE! And not just any real tree- our FIRST REAL TREE!!! We've always used an artificial tree for each of the 9 Christmases that Aaron and I have spent together. But for this, our tenth Christmas, Aaron took me totally by surprise when he suggested we look at real ones.

We'd been promising the kids we'd go pick one out practically all week, then something would come up or we'd realize it was too cold or too dark to be able to look really well, or whatever. So this morning we made up our minds that we were coming home with a tree, and we did.

The first lot we went to was pretty big, but we left after just a couple of minutes because all of the trees were mixed together so you could walk up to a perfectly lovely $17 tree, then get excited about the one standing next to it only to find a $59 price tag attached.

I think the kids were a little scared of the four-story snowman.

The next lot we tried was much smaller and much, um, humbler, than the first, but organized. We quickly found a beautiful Norman Fir that was perfect! Everybody thought so.



I've always felt a little jealous of people with real trees strapped to the roof of their car. I've always wished it could be me. This is just a beautiful sight, in my opinion.

And here she is- ready for the lights, ribbons, ornaments and presents!

We trimmed some branches off the bottom, so I put them to use in the living room.




So excited to start putting things on that tree! Where the heck are those boxes...?