oh Christmas tree...

Ian and I have been parents for five Christmas seasons now.  Each year we've talked about heading up to a Christmas tree farm in the mountains to pick out "the perfect tree."  Two years we've actually made the drive.  This year we didn't...

But we did head over to "our" Christmas tree lot to pick out our tree again.  And one of the guys seemed to remember us from previous years.  (Guess our family does stand out a little...)

It was a drizzly night, but the weather could not put a damper on spirits as our kids excitedly walked up and down the rows of trees, shouting "this one is pretty," or "look at this one!," or "I think THIS is our tree!"

and we choose this one for our house!

After about 20 minutes, we finally settled on "the perfect tree" for our house.  It's a bit of a "Charlie Brown" tree on one side, but it had to fit in a corner anyway AND that scraggly side gave a good discount!

Time was quickly getting away from us that evening, so after Ian had some assistance in getting the tree in the stand, we sent some very disappointed kids to bed with the promise that we'd decorate the next night.

This may be Ky's fifth Christmas tree, but she still got lost in the wonder the next morning when she came downstairs and noticed the lights.

That night, after a quick dinner, Ian and I were true to our word.  Boxes of ornaments came out

and we spent the evening ooohing and aaahing over each ornament that was placed on the tree.  Stories were told about who gave or made many of the decorations.

Amazingly enough, I got lost enough in the moment to pretty much forget to use my camera.  During the  decorating process I only captured this one shot of the wee one placing his very first ornament on our tree.

Thousands of questions, hundreds of memories  and perhaps a few squabbles ~ over whose ornament was whose or who got to put what where ~ later, we were done.

And it was perfect!

Well, maybe except for the branches at the bottom two feet of the tree.  They were what you may call a bit heavy laden.

For those who wonder, yes, amazingly enough, I left it alone for about a week.  As it ended up, the branches drooped so badly that ornaments fell off and as they did, I'd "redistribute" them to less densely decorated areas.  We're much more balanced now.

**We bought the tree on Nov 28 and decorated on the 29th.  I'm just that far behind...**