Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Christmas traditions begin...

...with a tree! Living in the northwest, it is crazy to not cut down a tree yourself. (If you ask Sarah, she has a different opinion on that!) I didn't know there was a place with so many Christmas trees until I moved to Oregon. The first Christmas we were here I was 8 months pregnant, but I was so excited to cut down my first tree. My 3 requirements for my first home were: a)separate tub and shower in the master bath (the bath being a big oval tub!), b) 4 bedrooms, c) a window to put a Christmas tree in.

We haven't missed a year yet, although one year Jeff was being a stinker so Dallin and I went by ourselves. :-) The kids always have a great time, and of course they love decorating it. Here are some pics from the day.

Emily found her "perfect" tree and she was so excited about it! Looking back, I should have just bought this one for her too. Maybe I will go back. :-)
Jeff put up the lights on the house yesterday and we decorated the tree today. If I can ever get my camera to work, I will show a picture of my tree in the window. What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?

7 comments:

Leah Marie said...

Well... one of my favorite traditions is the day after Thanksgiving when we put up our FAKE tree and light a pine scented candle. ;-)

LCM said...

I have to laugh because buying a fake tree saved our marriage. TD would get one stand for the tree we had and then next year the new tree would require another stand, so he would throw out the old one and then the next year, the old one would work. He would drive me insane with getting it up! So, he finally convinced me to get a fake one to save our marriage, or maybe to save me from killing him. I do miss the smell!

skbkmjfamily said...

I miss this one. 13.00 dollars for a beautiful huge tree, I could not get over it. Now I get the lovely Fred Meyer lot for a tree that is half as nice and half as big for triple the cost.

Suzie Petunia said...

I'll tell you what... actually cutting our own tree was a blast! I loved that part. Keeping it vertical in my living room... that wasn't as much fun. I'm sure we'll get adventurous and try again with a live tree. Just not this year. The memories are too fresh.

Ranell said...

I'm with Suzie on this one. We've had a fake tree since before we moved to the NW and we just don't want to break our tradition of opening the box, putting together the tree, fluffing out the branches and plugging it it (it's pre-lit!) We love our tree; we've had it enough years now that it is part of our family. But I'm happy for you that you had such a fun day picking out your tree!

cherl said...

You can't beat the fragrance of a fresh cut tree, but the artificial ones have so many other perks! No pine needles distributed throughout the house, no overflows from the stand onto the floor, no branches that sag much too early only to drop favorite ornaments onto the floor, no uninvited "pests"... We bought a new artificial tree this evening. Looking at it's pre-lit, perfect shape makes this much-too-busy-for-worrying-about-watering-the-tree mama very happy! :)

Nichole said...

You are awesome to cut a tree down. Our tradition is the same as one of your other freinds..day after Christmas put up the fake tree...then leave it up until New Years Day!!! I will have to burn some pine scent because this fake one isn't givin'off that nice smell :)