Whoville Trees

I love Christmas.  I've switched my calendar to December 2 days early, just so I could see Christmas on the calendar.  I've got the Frank Sinatra Christmas Pandora station rocking.  I've planned and schemed and thought up reasons to make Christmas cookies.  I want to have a party, just for an excuse to make 8 doz different cookies, even though parties are a lot of trouble.  I've made plans to visit family and stockpiled presents and generally gotten in the mood.

Oh, and we got a tree.  EEK!

I love Christmas trees.  Remember, I didn't always have a real Christmas tree.  No sir, Dante wouldn't indulge my whims for the first couple of years of our marriage.  See?

But then the Mister got wise to the fact that I was determined to have a tree, despite his attempts to squash my Christmas spirit (Seriously, the man likes to pretend he's a scrooge.  He said our child is not allowed to like Christmas.  That he's going to beat our kid on Christmas each year so that they despise the holiday as much as he pretends too.  Truth be told, I think he kind of likes the season, he just doesn't know how to admit it.  Oh, and he'd never beat anyone, except at cards, and only because he cheats.)

Anyhow, this year, I tried to up the ante and go to a "cut your own" place.  We've got a good two years of real Christmas trees behind us, and it felt like it was time to make the leap.  So we went to a place near us, that boasted of White Pines and Something Blue and a few types of Cedars...  it was a gamble, but we tried it.  And when we got there, I would have sworn I was in Whoville.  (Seriously, who know Whoville was in rural SC, past the fallen down trailers and over-stuffed garages in what looked to be a Hoarders paradise?)

Are you seeing what I'm seeing?
Anyone else see trees that have obviously been popped open like an umbrella?

How about now?
Seriously, they wanted you to take a tree like this home, and make it your Christmas tree.
I've never seen them like this!
The ones in the background look even more weird and animated-like!

Since the majority of the trees that were available for you to cut down had been trimmed into cones that would make a geometry teacher proud, and looked nothing like what I thought a Christmas tree should, we ended up going with a pre-cut Fraiser Fir.  We brought our newly-married friends with us, who also got their first married peoples tree.  And a friend who had never had a Christmas tree growing up.  Not because of any deep-held convictions, just because that's not how her parents celebrated Christmas.  

Which seems so crazy to me.

They don't even wrap their Christmas presents, y'all!  UN.BE.Lievable.

A fantastical Christmasy time was had by all.
We even sipped free hot chocolate, and I ate my first candy cane of the season!
(Hello baby!)

It would have been even more Who-like if cutting those strings on the tree would have resulted in the trimmed tree to the right...
But the one on the right took sweat and tears and about 2 hours.
2 hours of awesome!

Duke isn't a huge fan, since his window viewing is mighty obstructed, but he's coping.
Well, mostly coping.
When he's not coping, he's dejectedly resting his chin on the wee bit of window sill he can reach,  and plotting the demise of the many squirrels running through our yard.
Burglars are welcome, but squirrels will pay with their lives, apparently...

Alrighty, well, being as its almost Christmas time, that means its also almost the end of the semester, and I've got a few lose ends to wrap up, so that is all the Christmas goodness I have time to share for now.  But I'd love to hear what you think of the crazy-sculpted trees.  Did you ever buy one like that?  Is that normal?  Does anyone out there decorate the tree only on Christmas Eve after the kiddos are in bed?  Anyone else never had a tree?  Talk to me, I've got the fever!

<3 M.