Christmas TreeEven though it has almost been two weeks since we got our tree I had to write about getting our tree this year.
I love getting in the car to get our tree. Every time we drive to pick it up I always tell Annie Kate it was on the way to get our tree in 1997, in New Orleans, that we decided to start our family. As we were driving that night to get our tree we felt like we didn't want to do this again with just the two of us. I remember saying, "so does this mean we are going to start our family?.." and of course I started crying. I remember the next year crying the whole way there with our little baby in the back seat.
We were pleasantly surprised by the prices at Lowe's. We always buy a Fraser Fir and they were $41.00 for the 7-8' tree. This seemed to be less than living in Nashville.
Sally Jane kept running around through the trees.
And Caroline and AK were doing their fair share of hiding.
Here is the tree we got.
We always love watching them cut off the bottom and I fill my car with the cuttings for wreaths around the home and for my mailbox swag. We always take the bottom disc of the tree. I used to write the year on it and think I would used them as coasters or something. But we seem to have lost them in our move to Nashville years ago. But a fun new traditions of having them cut 1/2 an inch off the bottom, write the year and where you lived or a memory for that year. You could drill a whole down the middle and stick them on a stackable post...
Tying the tree to the top of the car always makes us tell another story to our kids. In 2000 we tied the tree to the top of the Saturn wagon and had the two front windows rolled down to loop the string through. After we were done we realized we had locked ourselves from getting back in the car and had to crawl through the window. Annie Kate was 2 years old and we couldn't get her out of the car until we had gotten the tree cut off.
I have memories as a kid going to cut down our tree in the snow, but leaving and coming home in 30 minutes with our energetic little girls seems more appealing at this stage.
Tomorrow we celebrate with President Bush for the National Christmas tree lighting... Ok and 2800 other people.
4 comments:
I love the idea of keeping the end of the stump that was cut off. I of course never would think of that, but it's awesome considering I lived in many different houses.
I'm with you. I would love to go cut down my tree, but while my girls are so young this just seems better.
Love the photos.
This makes me want a real tree- I have had a fake one since I was like 8 or 9. Maybe next year will be the year. I love the idea of cutting the stump a little to keep a memento.
Great ideas Kristi! We ended up getting our first artificial tree this year, now that we have a little boy, he gets into "everything". So we had to find something he couldn't eat, drink from,or destroy.
Your story of deciding to get pregnant and having AK the next time you went to get your tree is making me teary, and that never happens!
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