Trim-A-Tree

I feel very fortunate that Jason was able to visit at Thanksgiving and that we got to do some Christmas-y things together, including putting up the tree.

We got our tree from the MU Forestry Club like we have for the past three years. It didn't take us too long to find a tree. They still had a pretty good selection, and we had size constraints. The tree had to fit beside the TV AND fit into the antique tree stand that I stole from Mom and Dad when they got a new one. Jason took our tree to the counter, and they put it on that thing that shakes out all the loose pine needles. I love that thing! I don't know why, but it makes me laugh every time!

The nice guy helping us cut the trunk so it would fit in the stand, which is a good thing because I don't have a hacksaw, and the last time a tree wouldn't fit, Jason attacked it with a very large kitchen knife. Jason put up the tree when we got home. I was very excited to decorate, but we had to put Christmas on pause to watch "Bigger, Faster, Stronger," a movie about steriod use.

While the movie was very interesting, I was ready for Christmas when it was over. I brought all of my Christmas CDs downstairs, and we began unpacking the decorations while we listened to Bing sing the holiday classics.





My favorite part of decorating the tree is the ornaments. Every one has a memory attached to it: the baseball for the time that Jason lost the car at a Royals game, the recliner for our love/hate relationship with the old ugly chair that resides in the corner and even the jingle bell ornaments that we made together that we have to fix every year because they get smashed in storage. And we topped it all off with the angel that Grandma Mary used on her tree.

This year, we even put up a nativity scene. The stable looks pretty full. I had to look at the layout on the box to get everyone to fit right. If I were Mary, I would have been overwhelmed by the number of guests. Thank goodness they didn't really all come at the same time!