O Christmas Tree

Over at one of my favorite blogs "Kelly's Korner" she is doing "show us your Christmas trees". So I thought I would post a picture of mine. It is minus the angel on top because Mat isn't home and that is something he does with the kids. So that will have to wait until Wednesday.


I have to say - I have looked at all the different Christmas trees that people have posted on their blogs. There are some really beautiful trees out there! And some people have A LOT of trees!

I did notice that most trees are themed and very fashionable. I was surprised to see that most of them did not have ornaments that weren't identical. Our idea of a Christmas tree is a tree filled with memories. Mat and I have childhood ornaments on our tree that our parents let us take with us when we got married.

Each year we get ornaments for each of the kids - something that speaks about them in some way.

And each year we get a family ornament at the place in the mall that personalizes the ornaments. It is always fun to pick out the ornament together as a family each year. It is the last ornament we hang on the tree - a symbol of another wonderful year together as a family.

Mat and I used to get ornaments for each other each year. But our tree is getting full! The idea of a second tree isn't that bad........

We enjoy getting each ornament out each year and talking about it and why we have it. Our tree speaks a lot about our family and our personalities. And I love it very much. Once we get this year's family ornament, I will share it with all of you.

I also have my poinsettia for this year.
It is giant! I love it. It fits perfect in our corner of our family room. And did you know that poinsettias are NOT poisonous??? It is a total MYTH. A doctor said that kids/animals would have to eat about 500-600 leaves in order to be any bit ill. That would make anyone ill, I would think......

After the kids tried on their new snow gear, we need to try them out.


Today has been a very full day. We started our day by going out to breakfast and then to the Christmas tree farm to pick this years tree.



There were a lot of trees to pick from.

And of course - it snowed last night, so that was an added bonus to our trip.



The kids had a great time looking for the perfect tree and then playing in the snow.






They had fun going in and out of the trees.



Once we found the right tree, Mat had to cut it down.

This would have been easier if he would have brought his chain saw. But I digress.

Arlington was not satisfied by our choice. She told us several times "it isn't the one I would have chosen". She wanted this little tree.


She has been watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and thought this was the better choice. I would have liked to see how she would have gotten all of our ornaments on there.


Once the tree was cut down (side note - my mother in law and I were freezing our toes off waiting for Mat to handsaw this puppy down). We drug it to the checkout. Arlington helped.

It was a lot of fun. I loved that we went as a family this year to pick our our tree. Normally just Mat and Arlington go because of space reasons.

I took a picture of our house in the snow for my SIL, Teen. She lives in Florida, and is wishing for a white Christmas, so this is for her.

We don't have our outside lights out yet, but we do have our wreaths up.

Arlington then went to a birthday party this afternoon. She had a great time- they did a hike. Good thing she was dressed warm.

After the birthday party, we got into the car and went to our local town's tree lighting. We are just like the Gilmore girl's here! All that stuff in the shows - it happens in these small towns. We went to the local town green and they sang Christmas carols, and the kids listened.

And they gave the kids bells to jingle.

And then they lit the large tree that is in the green. It was a lot of fun. Cold - but fun.

After we came home and had dinner (and got warm), we decorated the tree. As every year, an ornament was broken. Sigh. But, as you can see - even minus that one ornament - our tree is very full.
So tomorrow is back to school and work. Only two and a half weeks left until we are off on Christmas break!

See you Tuesday.