How lovely are thy branches

As a little girl, I loved to decorate the tree. I would be giddy when mom would ask dad to drag down the giant, ragged box of color-coded fir limbs. It took a good hour just to match up the yellow, blue and red tips to the stick "trunk" and then fluff everything to make it look better. And whatever we got wrong—a branch in the wrong slot or an unfluffed spot—we covered with garland and tinsel and kid-crafted ornaments. And I always felt like our trees were beautiful works of art.

I still love to decorate the tree, but I've boycotted a tree-in-a-box since my junior year of college, when I had a bedroom that could fit a full-size tree of my own. I had always longed for a real tree, but my folks were just not into the idea of buying one each year, watering it for 30 days, dragging it out of the house and then cleaning pine needles out of the shag carpet for the next six months.

So I took matters into my own hands, and I have never had an artificial tree since. Since I met David, I've purchased my tree from Lowe's or a tree stand, but I've been trying to get him to a tree farm to find just the right one and cut it down ourselves.

This year, he came in from hunting one Saturday just long enough to stay bundled up and drive to one of the many tree farms within 10 miles of our home. I was delighted, to say the least.

I don't think Noah knew what he was getting into as he waited in our kitchen to set off, with 20 layers of clothes on and warm winter boots.

We chose a farm whose sign we'd driven by all the time. But we had no idea how big it was! The trees went on and on and on, and they had gorgeous, mature Frazier Fir trees—my favorite because they look so graceful and their needles are soft. We had to climb up a steep hill to find the best candidates.

When we found a tree I declared "the one," David set about sawing it down.

Noah desperately wanted to help, so he worked hard to help pull Daddy's arm as he sawed.

Success! We David had to carry the tree down the hill and to the truck.

Back at home, we wrangled our naked tree into its stand in the corner of our living room.

And then I  wrapped it in three new sets of lights. I thought I would suck it up and buy LED lights this year, but I just couldn't find that much extra cash in the budget. The up front investment is crazy!

 

Ta da! A decorated tree, with Noah in his preschool program, Buzz Lightyear jammies. 

The house smells amazing, and the tree I think is one of the most beautiful I've ever had!