Our "Little" Christmas Tree

So, every year we always get our tree at some point during the first full weekend of December. This year we picked Sunday, December 4th as The Day!!!!!

We went to church in the morning and then a little later that day, we set out to find, not just any tree, but THE tree!

Well, we've had great success in the past going to Lowe's and you can't beat their prices, plus they give us a military discount (so great of them)! Well, this year we showed up and there was literally one 6-7 foot Noble Fir (the only kind of tree we'll get) left. Alex grabbed the tree just before another couple came around the corner asking the salesman if there were anymore 6-7 food Noble Firs. He held it up! We admired it! We had one of the workers come over and hold it and spin it for us, so that we could officially decide if we like it. There was one little flaw, but it was the last one and still a pretty nice tree, so we said we'd take it.

The worker put the tree in a cart and we got in line, along with half of San Diego who also had the same idea that today was THE DAY to get their Christmas Tree. So, as we're waiting, I'm still scanning the other trees and I happened to spot a yellow tag (which meant 6-7 foot Noble Fir) amongst all of the 7-8 foot Noble Firs. I quietly pointed it out to Alex, who made a dash to go make sure our eyes weren't deceiving us and low and behold, another tree. So Alex pulls the tree out into the middle isle so we could quickly decide if we liked it better (even though we could tell it was much fuller...this will be important later). It was much fuller and felt as fresh as a tree could feel. So, we made a quick swaparoo and we had fount IT. OUR TREE.

Alex and Madison waited for the worker to cut and bag our tree, as well as to pay for it. I took Hudson and together we went and pulled our car around to the front so that we could tie our tree to the top. We definitely had to have help putting that massive tree up on top of the car since I am not the tallest kid on the block. Once we got the tree on top of the car, Alex, being the Marine that he is, is more than capable of tying our tree to the top of the car, but I LOVE the idea of a challenge, so he let me have a go at it first. AND, I must say that I think I did a pretty good job :)

So, now we were off to put our tree in our house and decorate it with the kids.

Once we arrived home, we had to figure out how to get our tree off the top of the car. (Man, was that a sight to see). We had put a towel under the tree before placing it on top of our car, so I got on one side of the car and Alex waited on the other. I stood up on the passenger side of the car and yanked the towel trying to roll the tree toward Alex. Ha Ha! After the third or fourth attempt, it finally worked and Alex was standing with a tree upon his head.

Whew...are you ready for the kicker! So we cut the wrapping off of the tree and Alex and I carry it inside and set it in the stand, except there was a slight problem! Once it was up, the top was touching the ceiling! Oh My!!!! So we immediately called our friend Bobby to see if he had a chain saw (he has pretty much every tool known to man). Thankfully he did and he came over to assist us.

So, we brought the tree back outside and after closer examination (away from all of the other trees that clouded our judgement) this tree had to be at least 8 feet before we made all of our adjustments.Thankfully, Bobby was able to cut about 6-8 inches off of the bottom of the trunk and I clipped about 4-6 inches off of the top of the tree.

Take Two:

Alex and I carried the tree back inside and set it up in the stand one more time and Voila! It was perfect! Now, it was still a little wide, since it was such a big tree to begin with (or rather full as we noticed at Lowes).

We turned on Christmas music!

Okay, now we were ready to put the lights on. It took all 5 strands of lights we own to cover this bad boy, due to it's width. Once the lights were on, we were ready to decorate the tree. Madison was even more into decorating the tree this year than last year! It was such a joy pulling out the ornaments and handing them to her and Alex and watching them decorate the tree together. I can't wait until Hudson is able to help next year :) Of course I had a few special ornaments that I hung myself, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching my loves hang the ornaments in "just the right spots."

To conclude the evening we had some sweet friends come over and together we all watched The Polar Express and ate popcorn!

What a great day!!!

I love our "little" tree. I love my husband. I love my kiddos. I love this time of year.

May you remember that while, trees and stockings are fun, Jesus is the TRUE REASON FOR THE SEASON!