If you guessed Cabela’s – you were correct!

Yesterday afternoon, we made our annual trek through the pasture looking for the perfect tree. The actual job of finding THE one is an adventure in itself! Once you find one that might work, you just automatically think maybe you’ll find one better just over the ridge.  The temperature was in the upper 50’s when we left home but the sun was going down. That’s what you get for trying to squeeze too many things in at the same time! But, as it worked out, we had plenty of time to find three trees that would fit the bill for what they were meant to be – a Christmas tree.

It’s a good thing I went back to the scene of the accident and found Jimbo’s New Holland cap! Besides visiting doctors, this is the first real outing he’s had since November 15th.

Jenna found her tree “right off the bat”!

Curt found THE PERFECT tree without even consulting Jamie first. Apparently she liked it by the looks of her hug! 🙂

With Jim still being sort of crippled, I took it upon myself to cut ours. It’s the top half of a larger tree but perfectly shaped!

While we were all together, we took advantage of the good temps to take a few family pictures. I’m sure you’ll be seeing those as soon as our personal photographer (Jenna) gets them edited and sent this way. Jamie wanted one with just her and Curt before the baby is born. This just makes me laugh cuz Curt’s so tickled about his dog rolling around in the grass in front of them.

Once we got the tree in its stand, Callie helped me replace burned out lights.

Christmas lights are so darned frustrating! I swear there are gremlins in my attic! When I put these lights away last year, they came off the tree working. When I plugged in the majority of them this year, they dealt me a fit! As a matter of fact, the two strings of mini clear lights I plugged in (to put on the tree) didn’t even flicker. I threatened to step on them but decided the miniature pieces of shattered glass may not be a good thing to have ground into the carpet. I threw them away and informed my family I was going to Wal-Mart after more lights – it was nearly 7:00 p.m. Well, as I’ve told you in a previous post, when there’s an opportunity for Jim to go to town for something good to eat, he’s in for the ride! All I wanted to do was drive up and drive back. But…it became a family outing with intentions of getting Chinese food “since we’re heading to town anyways”. What a disappointment it was for everyone when we walked into the restaurant and the cashier greeted us with, “it’ll be 40 minutes tonight because of all the takeout orders”. We turned around and headed for Wal-Mart. Guess where we ate… McDonald’s. Whoops – that didn’t work out so well. But I got my lights and several fuses and we were back home in no time. It seems the process of getting Christmas up this year is taking way longer than usual.

Tonight we finished the tree. What do you think?

After Taylor & Callie put on their favorite ornaments, I put on mine. The one above used to be my harvest Grandma & Grandpa’s. I remember putting them on their tree as a little girl. The ones below are my favorite because it reflects the same time in our lives – kindergarten. As a girl scout, I remember making mine. After we got married, and had the girls, I created one for each of them, as well. I wonder if Curt would share a picture of himself so we can add to the kindergarten tradition…

It smells like Christmas in our tiny little home! As we were driving through the neighborhood that I grew up in last night, I very briefly had a twinge of homesickness. I looked down the street where the house sits and I wished I could go home. It’s been 23 years since my parents divorced. They both have different places they call home but neither one of them is home to me. Home is on Beadle Street where most of the families that I grew up with still live.

Our tiny little house is just that – tiny. But, it’s home!