O' Christmas Tree

We added a few more decorations to the tree last night.  It still looks a bit desperate, but it is ours, in all its piney glory.

This is officially our 3rd Christmas in our home.  Where has the time gone? The first 2 Christmases gave us a fake tree that stood 6 feet tall.  It was a sad looking tree, in hindsight, but I'm not sure we knew it.  Well, perhaps we did, but we are troopers.  We troop along with whatever comes our way, real or fake.

It was fun decorating our first sad tree in 2007.  The ornaments we bought at the 'Mart and a string of musical lights because no tree of mine will ever be complete without a string of dancing musical lights.  They remind me of childhood.  Always the lights that played the Christmas tunes. And we would beg our parents to let us sleep in front of the tree with the lights on, softly playing all the sounds of Christmas cheer.  But, my mom pretty much always said no.  Back then  she worried as much as she does now about fire danger (she seriously is always worried something will burn down).

But anyway, our sad tree of 2007 held our first affordable ornaments and we were pleased.  We tucked her away for 2008 and in that year she was equally slightly sad but ours and that was awesome.  We decorated her in the ornaments of 07' plus some new ones and it was beautiful.  All 6 feet of her.

And this year we decided to keep her tucked away, but she is not sad.  She is reveling in the smell of real pine that permeates throughout our dining room, kitchen and stairway.  She is resting peacefully until the year she is given to a niece or nephew in their first home. 

Lloyd and I bought our first real tree together this year.  What I didn't know was that this was Lloyd's first real tree that he ever had (or could remember ever having).  This made it extra special for us.  We came home and unbagged this beautiful 8 feet tree.  He decorated our tree with the decorations from 2007 and 2008 and we somehow managed to find ourselves surprised to find the tree was in desperate need of some more adornments.  So off to the 'Mart, a few more goodies, and she is looking a bit better.  It's not a Rockefeller tree, but we are working on it.

In a few days I will have some help from girlfriends... bringing a special ornament to share with me and our sparse tree, because nothing says Christmas quite like the smell of pine and tree trimming with friends.