Oh Christmas Tree

I am officially done with Christmas decorating. This weekend was all about the tree.

Here's Jack & I picking out our favorite one.

Funny story. During all the recent talk of Christmas traditions I asked Drew if he knew of any local tree farms. As I kid, my family used to go to a local tree farm every year where we would tag a tree, cut it down and drive it home strapped to the top of the mini van. (And we weren't the only ones. It was always a guessing game on the way home as to how many other mini vans we'd pass with trees on their roofs. Believe me. There were lots. Welcome to rural Nebraska, folks!) Anyway, for me it was fun and something I thought we might want to do with Jackson. The reply I got from my husband (you know, the man who runs a landscape company for a living and practically lives outdoors), "Do you know what kind of critters live in those trees?" What?! Talk about a role reversal. Here I was volunteering to do something somewhat outdoorsy and my husband is worried about "critters"!

In the end, we went with our old stand by.

The Lawrence Optimist Club tree stand in the parking lot of Checkers grocery store.

But you know, they have great trees. And they're reasonably priced. And the proceeds help a very good local cause. This time, it was a boys baseball team that would benefit. Talk about a cause near and dear to Drew's heart!

Here are the boys putting the tree up.

I took advantage of an uncharacteristic 2 hour nap this morning and got the lights, ribbon and decorations all hung. The tree is a little smaller than what we've had in the past, but I think it turned out great.

In fact, I think I'll go scoop myself some peppermint ice cream and enjoy the view.