O Christmas Tree

For the past few years living in our small apartment in Seattle, our family has had to content itself with our small and fake Christmas tree. While lovely, especially when decorated with all of our ornaments, it just wasn't the same as the luscious, fragrant trees that I had remembered from my childhood.

So, we were all very excited as Christmastime rolled around again this year, and this time, we were able to go pick out a real tree to place in our very own house! We headed out on Friday night when Ian got home from work to the Christmas tree lot to pick out our tree. We wandered around for a few minutes, one tree looking very much the same as the next. We weren't even sure which size to get because we weren't used to our new tree placement. Then, Evan, who was riding in Daddy's arms, hopped down and walked over to one particular tree. That was it, our tree, and he did a great job picking it out.

(Evan and Daddy tree shopping)

Tree moving has evolved a lot since Ian and I were kids. I remember wobbly trees on top of cars and much difficulty strapping them down. Ian and I both remember much cursing and arguing with difficult tree stands. However, the transition from position on the lot to position in our living room was really pretty easy. The tree lot workers strapped the tree easily on the car for us, and then thanks to our new tree stand, the tree easily hopped into it's new home in our living room ready for us to decorate.

(Our car wearing our new tree-Whose beady eyes are peering out of the car?)

Evan was much more of a help this year, or should I say, he was at least much more interested in the tree this year. He couldn't really understand the concept of hanging an ornament on the tree, but he was great at setting them all on the same branch. Needless to say, we rearranged a bit of his work when he went to bed. We had a fabulous time decorating the tree and it looks beautiful!

(Evan and Daddy take a break from hanging ornaments to pose for a picture.)

(Tree decorating is hard work!)

All of the non-breakable ornaments are at the bottom of the tree, so whenever Evan wants to, he can go and pull one off. This morning, he came back into the kitchen with a drum ornament in his hands. So, I started showing him how to drum on it and sang Little Drummer Boy. He absolutely loved it! He's been grabbing that ornament off the tree all day and running into the kitchen beaming so I can sing "Pa-Rum-Pa-Pum-Pum" and tap on the drum.

I love this time of year!