WE GOT "THE" TREE...

Happy Monday everyone!  How was your weekend? Did the inclement weather keep you in or did you venture out into the winter wonder land any?  Mine was a mix.  We mostly stayed home but we did venture out a little too. We headed over to Lowes Friday evening, the worst night of all, to pick up a few things.

While we were there we spotted "the" tree.  It was the first one we saw...a 7 1/2 foot Douglas Fir.  It was the right height and the right shape. It was all around perfect and was only $34.95 with our Lowes discount. The hubs thought we should go ahead and get it, you know so he wouldn't have to traipse out into the woods at dad's house on Saturday.  The only thing that was not perfect was that we hadn't brought the van or the truck to Lowes...we were driving the PT Cruiser which is a wee bit small for hauling a tree,...but we did it...and everything worked out fine...

I think the kids had more fun watching their dad tie it onto the car than anything...they were totally excited even though it was blustery cold out.

We got it home, put it in the stand, gave it a big drink of water and let it sit overnight before decorating.  We decorated on Saturday.  Usually I am the only one to decorate the tree for Christmas but this year everyone was so excited to have a real live tree that I got help.  Here's one of my little helpers now...

Isn't he a cutie?  Of course our tree isn't magazine worthy but I think it turned out pretty good and, do you know what the best part was, we got to spend some quality family time together, laughing and singing Christmas carols while hanging our special family ornaments on our beautiful real live Douglas Fir.

I spent a part of my day on Sunday making homemade garland for the mantel from a large fallen White Pine branch that we cobbed from the Catholic church yard around the block from the house. I saw the branch on my way home from work Thursday evening. It couldn't have been more perfect and it was there for the taking... so I talked the hubs into going with me to get it after dinner. Yes, we must have looked liked criminals to the passers by as we loaded it into the van.  It was super cold, the snow was falling and it was dark out but it was perfectly good greens that I wasn't about to let go to waste, especially since I had decided that were going to have a "real" Christmas this year with fresh greenery and everything.  We laughed all the way home about our little "robbery". Good times, I tell you, good times...

So far this has been the best Christmas ever!!!  So now without further ado let me show you how everything is looking...

So what do you think of my homemade pine garland, from the "stolen" branch, is it gorgeous or what?  It was really easy to do too!  I just taped twigs together with florist tape until I got the length I wanted.  The best part it's fresh and it didn't take much longer to make than it takes to fluff up the fake stuff.   Super easy!!!

Did you spot the little fluffy owls I got from my visit to Sybills Saint James?  Aren't they so cute?

Well that's it so far but it's really beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. I hope to get the dining room decorated this week.  Just have to pick up a few more red and green ornaments...until then...

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