Oh !!! Christmas Tree

Is it really time again to buy a Christmas tree?

We're reelin' in the years...So out we go on a cold Saturday morning. Here's John scraping ice off his truck at 8:00 am. Sorry about the blurry picture-- he's moving fast and won't stop, and I'm shivering! We're cold up here in the Northwest this week. In fact the temperature today won't even get above freezing.

Off we drive, slipping and sliding down the Seattle streets to McLendon's Hardware for a bargain tree ($17.98) The parking lot was full of other early bird tree hunters, but we grabbed a nice one and were out of there in record time.

Now the real fun begins. John's annual wrestle with the tree stand, including loud exclamations of many "non-holiday" words. Especially when his bare hand "discovered" that dried back berry cane wrapped around the trunk!

Now it's my turn for the annual moaning "Oh, what a MESS everywhere, why don't we just get a nice, clean, fake tree like smart people?"

Next, the piles of Christmas boxes that need to be handed down one-by-one from the attic crawl space, where they seem to multiply like rabbits over the summer.

Finally! The naked tree is up, and as straight as it's ever going to be after many turns and much deliberation and tinkering. And now, time for the tree installer to disappear to a distant part of the house (for about 4 hours) while the Christmas fairy goes to work...

And TA DA! Christmas has arrived, and the fresh tree smells wonderful. Once again, we have to agree the old house looks pretty with a real tree in the corner of the (crowded) living room. Hope you had a good weekend too-- warm wishes and love to all.