O Tannenbaum

So we did the tree thing.

I like the idea of cutting our own tree; honestly I do. But for one thing, all the forests around here are owned by people with hunting rifles.

And then there's the tree farm idea, which is charming in theory. We tried it once, and the reality turned out to be more of a wet, freezing, whiny mess of a thing that yielded one stubby tree. It was trying to be a handsome tree, but this just wasn't in its genes.

So. We took the easy smart route this year and went to Lowe's. Lovely place, Lowe's. And we paced the aisles and held up this tree and that tree until they all looked the same and we bought one.

(And I am wondering, sort of as a sidenote here, how it is that a tree can be perfectly straight at the store, but you get home and the trunk is bent and angled in the most obvious of ways. I'm smelling a conspiracy.)

So the decorating part went well. Elle gave her ornaments to her brothers, as she was having trouble negotiating hooks over prickly branches. But she was quite good at pulling glittery, breakable tidbits off the tree, and walking around ooohing and wowing to herself about just how glittery (and breakable) they were. And then Zee knocked the tree over at one point. Plus somehow five billion ornaments ended up on the bottom 1/10th of the tree. So all in all, it went well.

And tonight we gathered round the crooked tree and read Christmas stories and carolled to ourselves amidst twinkle lights and the faint scent of fraser-fir.

What a lovely little tree. I suppose it can stay.