How to Make the Kiddies Cry

Last week Tappy was here for respite and we were going out to choose a Christmas tree. Ana and I hate going out to choose a Christmas tree. We were trying to decide between a fresh tree or an artificial one with the peanut gallery piping in all around.

Let's not go out, we said, let's just use last year's tree! The ultimate recycling! How green of us....way better than regifting! Ana ran out to the side yard and retrieved it. It once was a six foot Douglas fir that we got free from our church. It was a nice little tree last year. We missed the tree pick-up with our trash service so we tossed it in the side yard. When it dried out we cut off the branches and burned them in our fire pit. What a bonfire! The neighbors probably feared for their homes. It was awesome. Now it is a six foot stump with short, spiky branches sticking out all over. Perfect! we declared.

Oh, the pouting and the whining that ensued. Pretty hilarious. Always fun to make the kids cry around Christmas time.

Here's our "cowboy tree" which now graces a corner of our dining room.

I think it turned out pretty nice indeed.
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Okay, so we got a little fake tree too. Here's how that one turned out.

Incidentally, one of the things we hate about setting up live trees is all the work it takes to get it into the stand and make it stand straight. So instead we spent two days trying to make the fake tree stand up straight. At least my arms didn't get an itchy rash like they do with a fresh tree, but frustrating nonetheless.

Next year this tree will become our "kid ornament" tree. Every year we give the kids a new ornament that goes on their tree. We still have a three foot tree for that but clearly need to move on to a bigger one.

This was taken immediately after I broke Peaches' really cool new handpainted ornament. And I thought I was done shopping...guess I'll have to go out and replace that one.