O Christmas Tree

Day 117.

It's Saturday and boy did it seem to fly by!

We started the morning off with Hudson's golf lesson. He did really well today. My parents met us there and then after the lesson we dropped a car off at the house and went to go pick out our Christmas Tree. Yes, we still get a LIVE tree every year. I always get razzed for that, but this is one of my favorite traditions. We decided to go to a cute little family owned tree farm this year instead of just going to Lowe's or Home Depot because I had stopped by the farm and they had some beautiful trees and they looked so fresh. I knew they were going to be a bit pricier, but I just decided to go with it this year. Well, God showed up in that detail too....the 7-8 foot trees at Lowe's were $70 this year and the same size tree at this lot were between $110-$150. We didn't find "the tree" right away, so we asked if they had any more Nobel Firs (I'm a stickler for it needing to be a beautiful Nobel Fir) that were the size we were looking for. The guy saw that Alex was on FaceTime with us (thank you technology...yes, Alex was able to help us pick out our tree all the way from Kuwait), and when he came back he told us his brother was deployed and that the tree he found was 8 feet tall and that the price was $69.99. You guys....this tree fits perfectly in our home and it's perfect. There is one silly little branch that sticks out, but Madison was so excited to be able to hang her TinkerBell ornament on it because usually it's hard to find a brach that has enough space under it for this particular ornament. The guys at the farm tied the tree up on the roof and then we brought it home. I was very thankful that my parents were able to come and help with the tree, especially getting it inside the house and into the stand.

Once the tree was standing, we all went to have lunch at The Habit. Then my parents left to head to the Post Office, to mail Alex a care package and the kids and I went home to finish decorating the house as well as the tree. While we decorated the tree, we had our Christmas music blaring and laughter was abounding....I missed Alex terribly (especially as I pulled out the ornaments he usually helps adorn our tree with), but the delight in the eyes of my children brought me so much comfort and made me thankful that we were even able to have had Alex on FaceTime earlier as we picked out our tree.

We had a blast today and the kids finished decorating their personal trees too. They each have an artificial 3 foot tree in their room and they get to fill it with their homemade ornaments and a few others, that I share with them. ;) 

Tonight for movie night we watched Elf and the kids just kept saying how much they love our tree and how pretty it is and how amazing it smells. Before they went to bed, I snapped a quick picture of them in front of the tree. You can just see how much they love Christmas in this picture.

After the kids went to bed, I wrapped some presents and watched Christmas with the Kranks. Then I updated their Christmas lists a little more because I realized I needed to find a couple more items. 

Now, I'm sitting here at the computer with the only lights on the glow of our Christmas lights from the tree and the many different strands of garland all over the house. The Christmas music is playing, as I reflect on the fact that tomorrow starts the beginning of Advent. As soon as I finish up here, I am going to be reading and prepping for our first day of our family advent study. Alex and I are so excited to be doing this and I am super excited that we are going to do our best to do it in the mornings before school if Alex is able to be free. 

I pray that this Christmas season, whether you are entering it during a time of sorrow, a time of celebration, a time of loneliness, or another situation entirely, that you feel the love of our Father and are filled with the Joy that comes from knowing that the whole reason we celebrate this time of year is because our Savior was born. Because of this we can walk confidently and need to fear what is to come, for He is with us now and always.