O Christmas Tree...

O Christmas Tree, you have finally arrived!

Normally we put our tree up at the beginning of the Advent fast but this year we had some...well, delays.

Bright and early on November 16 I pulled out the box with our truly evergreen plastic Christmas tree and all it's decorations. I couldn't wait until DH got home so I could put the Christmas carols on and boil the hot cocoa and we could all gather happily together and decorate our tree.

Well, this is what really happened...

We started putting the tree up and for every branch that we bent into position another two fell off. Like completely off. So, we decided we needed a new tree. We've had this one for the 8 years we've been married and before that it belonged to DH's grandparents who had it for quite a few years as well.

I really wanted a live tree but it took some DH needed some persuasion (nothing a nice lenten chocolate cake couldn't fix). We decided to wait a little because of all the horror stories we've heard about live trees dying long before Christmas from the hot temps here.

We finally went tree hunting on Saturday...

Some were too big...

Some were too small...

Some were too bushy...

And one was just right...

The boys had so much fun running around and checking out all the trees. It was so much fun to watch them!

We did end up gathering to sing along to the carols and decorate the tree together as a family last night...

until the boys got bored and DH decided to answer a business call. So I sang solo for awhile until it was time to put the star on. Then the rest of the gang joined in again.

I love it! The house smells so good and I don't mind vacuuming up the needles. To be honest, I kind of like seeing them laying on the tree skirt. It reminds me of Christmas' as a young girl and I think it adds character to the tree. :)

This is one of my favorite ornaments of the Theotokos with Christ. I love how he's depicted as an older child and he is laying his head in his mother's lap. I think it's beautiful.

I took this photo through the lens of a pair of 3-D glasses the boys got in the mail from the Publix preschool program last year. They make the lights on the tree look like snowmen. :)