The 2015 Tree and other Holiday Shenanigans

In between cleaning off Stella's little art projects that Rick and I found around the house, we definitely added a bit of Christmas magic to our home this weekend. This really is the most wonderful time of year.  I have always loved this time of year, but with littles it makes it that much more magical. Stella is in awe with everything to do with Christmas and sings Santa Claus is Coming to Town all.day.long. I swear it's on repeat. This weekend we checked off a few things from our holiday bucket list. Family pictures for our holiday cards, check! Picked out our tree and cut her down, check! Decorated our tree, check! Tinsel our Elf has been here each morning since December 1st! Woohoo to me, and that will be another post! 

On Saturday we took our holiday pictures in the morning and headed over to the tree farm in the afternoon. It really was the perfect day to pick out a tree. It was beautiful. Sunny and cool. Stella was amazed by all the trees, so amazed that she ended up playing in the dirt!  After a bit of a walk to find the perfect tree, we knew we wanted a big one, Stella pointed to one and said 'this one Daddy, cut it down!"

Oh this tree. It will always be remembered.

We decided to go with a Norway this year because the branches are stronger and would hold our heavier ornaments. Not to mention I loved the shade of green and the smell was much stronger. This tree was big. Rick said he could cut off a few inches and it would fit. Not only was it big in height, but it was full, all around!

So Rick cut her down and Stella gave it her almighty pull. Her words exactly- "too heavy!"

Not quite sure how we got this sucker in the house but Rick and I carried it in, barely.  Four cut up arms, a ripped shirt and sappy hands later she was in the house. holy needles. We managed to get the heavy beast in the stand and untied her, Griswald style. Stella was mesmerized. It did not look that big at the tree farm! And if that wasn't enough we didn't like the tree in that spot and moved it to the other side of the room. 

The tree was finally up and in the spot. I began to strand the lights on her and got three quarters of the way and ran out. I sat on the floor next to the tree to try and change a bulb on a dead strand of lights. The tree came crashing down! Holy mess! With the tree already in the stand I was no help to Rick standing it up. basically I was not strong enough, since the stand kept sliding. Rick's Dad came over and helped him get the tree back up and they wired it to my curtain rod anchor. 

Sunday afternoon I managed to sneak out by myself to pick up more lights. We hung the lights again and ornaments. Stella did help with the lights at first.

But eventually had more fun playing in the tub of Christmas crap than actually decorating the tree. After wrestling the tinsel, the only thing left was the star, which we weren't even 100% sure it was going to fit. Rick stood on a tall chair, held onto the curtain rod and carefully leaned in to place the star. The effing wire holding the tree snapped and broke the curtain rod holder! The tree was once again loose and top heavy!  Another phone call to Rick's Dad. They moved the tree fully decorated and had to replace the curtain rod anchors. All said and done, our tree is star free! You can't make this shit up! 

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree

We will be cleaning up needles and tinsel for the next 365 days, atleast! 

And for the record, all of Stella's coloring tools are under lock and key and require supervision!