Tree Time!

Last year, our Christmas tree was a bitty little table-top thing.  I had my heart set on a real one for this year.  There's nothing better than the fresh scent of pine, the vibrant green needles and thick, full branches of a real, live Christmas tree. 

On the long ten-hour ride back from Canada on Saturday night, we decided to stop for a tree before going home.  I didn't want to wait another day!  It helped break up the monotony of the ride for Joshua, giving him something to look forward to, when he finally lost his sanity during the final two-hours of our trip.  

Growing up, we always drove way out to the country and cut our own tree.  The whole experience was fun: searching through rows of trees for the best one; Dad cutting it down with his old wood-handled saw; piling on the horse-drawn sleigh to take it back to the car; drinking hot chocolate at the tree-store; petting the animals on the farm; the long drive home.  It was perfect.  In the earlier years, we always went with friends, which added to the excitement.

I've always wanted my child/ren to experience the same thing, and with several tree farms in the area, it will be possible in the future...but this year, we settled for good ole' Home Depot.  We found a tall, narrow fir about six feet high, though we first had to tear the living room apart, moving things around and putting some furniture downstairs in order to make it fit.

Once we got it home, John set it up right away so the branches would fall for the following evening.  

I let Joshua put one ornament on the tree, since he didn't quite understand why he had to wait.  I gave him my new Tim Horton ornament and he said he wanted to put it "up there."  John lifted him so he could point to the exact spot he wanted and....well, it was the very top of the tree.  So Tim Hortons it was.

Joshua loves to help his Daddy do work around the house with his toy tools, and he was there, faithful as always, to make sure John got the nails in okay around the door frame. ;-)

Before we did any tree decorating, we drove to Starbucks for drinks.  We got a child-sized, child-temperature hot chocolate for Joshua.  We didn't tell him what it was before he took his first sip, but he looked up and asked, "Is there chocolate in it?"  He drank most of it, so I assume it was good. =)

Finally time to decorate!!

The finished results:

I still used our table-top tree from last year, too, and just added a few small gold ball ornaments.  If I find some cheap cream colored ribbon, I'll add that, too:

Yes, there are three different colored strands of lights.  Green, red, and green-and-red.  I don't remember having such...variety...on our Christmas tree two years ago, but since we had 'em, I used 'em.

I'm so excited about Christmas this year; it's the first one where Joshua actually understands what's going on, and though it's not technically his first Christmas, it pretty much is.  It's going to be fun!  =)