Tree Shopping

so i really would've posted a lot more right now if it hadn't been for jen's computer not downloading all of my pics that i want to show off.
last week for family night, kyle and i went with carson and jen and the boys to pick out a christmas tree. kyle and i have been saving our pennies since we were married for a real tree. (we have a christmas jar that is pretty heavy with coins and bills.)

i grew up with a fake one, and to kyle it just isn't christmas if you can't pick it out at the nursery, smell it when you come home, water it, and sweep all the needles every day. i'll have to admit, picking out our tree was so fun and i got really excited when walked into the grove of trees. i never knew there were so many different kinds: nobles, luce spruce (spelling?), douglas furs, and so on. i thought they were all the same. not even close. turns out nobles are my favorite and i focused my attention to all of those. carson was great to us and gave kyle and me a certificate for a tree.

i always imagined my first christmas with my husband and our dinky, cheap little 1 1/2 foot tree and homemade ornaments. (like the tree in mr. kruger's christmas) i was excited to be poor and have a christmas tree that looked it, but since we had the certificate we ended up with an eight footer. when we came home with an 8 1/2 foot tree, kyle said my eyes were too big for our house but i think it fits great! with the money we saved i went and picked out some nicer ornaments than we would've had.

so pretty much i'm proud of our tree, even though the poor workers got home about 45 minutes later than usual because jen and i couldn't decide on which was "perfect".

kyle and i brought the tree home and put in place in our living room, right in front of our big window. i couldn't believe how heavy it was - thank goodness i wasn't carrying it. the stand we had was way too small and the tree toppled over so we had to trade it with the stand for the three-and-a-half foot tree that jacob was bubbling with excitement about. after we put it up, i strung the lights which i will say is much harder to get a real tree evenly coated with lights than a fake one. when i put four strands of lights on, kyle finally had enough and told me that i was being a perfectionist.

for our date night the next friday, we decorated the tree with ornaments and drank hot chocolate while listening to christmas carols on the radio. we love turning off the house lights and soaking in the ambiance of christmas with all the smells and lights.

now the tree is up and BE-A-UTIFUL if i say so myself (and i do love the smell and feel of a real tree). but i think we might go and get some more ornaments because even though i spent about $82 already, when you have a tree this large, even 33 ornaments isn't enough - to my surprise.

the finished tree. beautiful huh?