O Tannenbaum

The holiday season has begun in our house. We got our treeS! over the weekend. The boys were beside themselves with glee.

It began with the ornaments. Dennis takes them to pick out a new ornament each year, and they did that last Friday. Ashe picked Buzz Lightyear; and, Finn picked a Pac-Man one, shaped like an old school stand-up Pac-Man machine (click to see it). It also makes sound effects like the old Pac-Man game. So cool that he picked that one. Love it.

On Saturday night, we took them to get the trees. We tricked them (for several reasons I won't go into here - it wasn't necessarily for a fun thing), making them think we were just going to get some hot chocolate. When they found out we were getting the tree, they were so excited.
We got two beautiful noble firs (they get one in their room). We went with a smaller tree (approx. 5') this year, because we didn't want to deal with the work of a bigger one (more ornaments and lights). It was humorous, though, because once it was in the stand, in our living room, it looked so teeny tiny. Our ceilings are so high, it was just dwarfed by the room. Anyway, Dennis suggested we put it on a table, and it's much better. Next year, we will probably be getting a larger tree...the picture below gives you some perspective of the size of the tree.

I really do love Christmas. I always have. It's almost like someone should be ashamed of loving it. You're supposed to hate how commercial it's become...I love the festivities. I love that we get together with family and everyone (in my family at least) is in such good moods. Everyone's happy and, yes, we give a lot of gifts. We also just like being together. As much as we (might) get on each others' nerves other times of the year, the Ordals-O'Dranes-Ealys have so much fun during the holidays.

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Boys decorate the tree in Ashe's room.

The boys' finished tree.