Our 1st REAL Christmas Tree

Every year that Mark and I have been together we have always had a fake tree.  I guess I was just used to a fake tree because it is what we had growing up.  I started to notice a few of my friends get real trees and they seemed to really like it.  They told me stories about going to the tree farm and picking out a tree.  Sounded like fun to me this year and I thought it could be a new family tradition for us.  As many of you may know, I am not the outdoorsy kind of person.  I am not a big fan of getting involved with the outdoors and nature.  I like to look at it from my climate controlled window.  One thing I have learned over the years is to step out of my comfort zone and experience new things.  So that is what I did. 

We were able to tag along with my friend Bev and her family to the Christmas tree farm.  Our friend Kersten and her family also came along.  I was so excited to find the perfect tree for our house.  Last year we put our fake tree in the entry way and that is where I wanted it to go this year.  Our entry way is two storys tall so I knew we didn't have to worry about how tall it was.  When we arrived we took a tractor ride over to the Christmas trees.  They handed us a saw and dolly.  Off we all went to find this perfect tree with six adults and six kids.  Sounds fun right??  Well, the kids were not into it at all.  I think they were just confused about the whole thing.  They followed along and they were all pretty good. 

There were a few different types of trees and I had no idea what to get.  I did find one type of tree I liked but they were all so short.  We ended up deciding on a tree with the long needles and I have no idea what kind it is. 

Here it is...

All ready to go home.  That seemed easy enough.
 

When we got home we put Andrew down for a nap and got to work.  Mark cut off some of the trunk and we brought it in.  I was worried about putting it in the tree stand because I have heard a lot of stories about trees falling down.  Our tree seemed to fit right in the stand.  Everything seemed to be going great until I saw a spider.  I am sure everyone knows that I HATE bugs!!!!  This wasn't just any spider, it was a jumping spider.  Then I started to worry...what have I done??  Our house is going to be infested with spiders.  To make matters worse, I found SEVEN spiders on the tree.  Mark vacuumed up most of them with a shop vac and that made things better.  It is now 12/15 and I have not seen a spider since the second day we brought it home.  Thank God!

We decorated the tree the day after we got it.  After we decorated it we decided it was too wide for the space we intended it to go.  So yes, we moved a decorated nine foot tree to another room.  Mark really loved that!  The good news is the tree didn't fall and no one was injured. 

So, I guess the jury is still out on if we are going to get a real tree next year.  We haven't really had a problem since the spiders.  The one thing I was looking forward to was the great smell everyone talked about, but ours doesn't smell.  I guess we got the wrong kind.  I will post a picture of the decorated tree soon.  Can't believe I haven't taken a picture of it yet. 

Andrew has pretty much left the tree alone.  When he looks at it he says, "Christmas tree big."  I tried to put the breakable ornaments up high.  There is a soccer ball ornament that he likes to play with, but I try to remind him not to touch the tree. 

Hope everyone has a great Christmas!!  We just finished Andrew's birthday celebrations so hopefully I will have more time to post on here.

Tracey