a new tradition

wow! was this new tradition

quite the adventure for our little family

i have always wanted a fresh tree

but growing up we always had an artificial one

and our first christmas together

husband and i lived in a townhouse 

where they didn't allow fresh trees

so we bought an artificial one and have been

using that for the past eight christmases

last christmas husband proclaimed

next year we are finally getting a real tree!

so a few days ago 

our little family bundled up and headed to a local tree farm

we were greeted by a friendly gentleman who proceeded to show us

the fresh trees he had just chopped down

no thanks we said, we are going to chop one down ourselves!

after much deliberation (and i thought nothing would top our pumpkin hunt!)

we finally settled on a 10 foot (yes! TEN FEET FOLKS) noble fir

husband got down to business

it was quite a feat because they didn't allow axes or power saws

he had to use a hand saw

and he may or may not have gotten pooped on by a few 

birds once or twice

ok, so after the tree was chopped down

we had to drag/carry the 10 foot, very heavy tree back to the lot

(of course pia had to use the bathroom at this time... side note: porta-potties are not

mom and 5 year old friendly)

phew! now we had to stuff this tree into our mini van

which we managed to do, but the top was sticking out

therefore we had to drive with our trunk slightly open

and pia crying and saying that we were going to get a ticket

the whole 10 minute drive home

after a quick trip to wal-mart to get a stand we finally got home

and seriously folks, i wasn't sure if we were going to get

this tree into my home!

we finally did, and wow was it tall!

yes we knew it was 10 feet and our ceilings are about 11 feet

but it reached our ceiling! 

we needed to make not one but two more trips to wal-mart because

we didn't have enough lights for this monster of a christmas tree

i honestly wasn't sure if we had enough ornaments to decorate it either

(but of course i would have happily obliged to shop for more!)

but as you can see we had more than enough

(ahem-- i have a slight christmas ornament addiction)

ok, you might be thinking

she said tradition--she actually wants to do this again next year?

oh yes i do!

and you want to know why?

mommy, we have the best tree, it's like 

one huge air freshener

proclaimed by my zoe

 age 7, christmas 2012