Our Christmas Tree 2013

We put off shopping for a Christmas tree for a bit too long. On December 15, we finally sorted out the living room so we'd have space. We even got the decorations from the attic and the tree stand from the garage. All we needed was an actual tree.

Making room at the inn, I mean, living room

We went to a nursery that afternoon only to discover they were sold out! This made us a little nervous about our options.

No tree at the nursery!

We drove past Harlow Carr Garden on the way and remembered a sign for trees there. Initially I was reluctant to go because they might have overpriced trees. But it was far too convenient so we went anyway. In their outdoor plant shop they had seven trees left, four of which were the wrong size for us (one too tall, three shorter than J or L). We picked the best one of the remaining three. We didn't bring any rope or bungee cords and the shop attendant didn't think they had any. Luckily, the tree was the right height to fit inside the car when we put the middle seat of the second row down. The tree extended from the trunk to the steering wheel comfortably (sort of). The ride home felt a lot less perilous than the usual top-of-the-car trip. No worries for it falling off!

At home, we had the usual challenges with balancing a real tree in a real stand. At first, we needed a weight to keep the tree from toppling over backwards.

Bare tree with ballast

In case you can't tell, that is a bag of rice. Some unused hand weights were lying around, so they became tree weights. After decorating the tree, we were able to cloak the "little helper" we were using.

Decorated, waiting for presents

We even decided to put presents under the tree early. Thankfully, the children did not rip into presents early. Christmas morning was a lot of fun. We opened about three quarters of the packages before going off to Christmas morning Mass, which was very nice. We came back home, had a snack, and finished the gifts.

The tree hasn't fallen over, the kids haven't knocked it over, pine needles haven't dropped everywhere (yet). It's been a great tree.