Griswald Family Christmas (Part 1)

I sure do feel like the Griswald's this year! It's been so fun and a little disappointing at the same time.

This year I decided that I wanted to do something different. David and I used to buy real Christmas trees before we had kids but bought a fake tree about 9-10 years ago. It is a beautiful fake tree but that is it.....it's fake. You have your pros and cons when it comes to fake vs real trees and for us, the fake one was what we needed. I also wanted something different in the fact that I didn't like the red for Christmas so I changed out everything that would be red and added maroon/crimson....whatever. Maroon bows and poinsettia leaves on wreaths,table runners etc.....you name it and mine was maroon. I have loved that look for the last 9-10 years. BUT this year I wanted everything to be different.

So, I had the great idea to actually go to a Christmas tree farm, cut down our own real live tree, come back home and decorate it, enjoy the yummy smells of a real tree and just have a grand 'ole Christmas with our real tree! Oh and I decided that I was tired of the maroon and wanted to do red. GASP!! Yes, I wanted to change and those of you who know me well, know that I don't handle change well! What has gotten into me?? HAHA!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, David and I loaded up the kids, picked up Dee-deed (my sister) and headed to a Christmas tree farm! It was a tad bit chilly but we were good! We got to the Christmas tree farm and automatically loved it! The people were super nice and helpful! They had a cute little gift shop that we browsed through and oh goodness, the smells coming from the farm and the hot chocolate were wonderful to the senses! Yes, they gave away free hot chocolate and apple cider!

We took a wagon ride down the farm because they had real live reindeer! The pair of reindeer are actually a 'couple' that they rent every year to come to the farm. The kids were so excited to see 'Santa's reindeer'!

~Adding a side note here: Yes, it's a mixed marriage. Can I get a WAAARRRRR EAGLE!! SOOO proud of our SEC Champs!!! Not naming names here...AHEM honey, but somebody sure was drinking some shutup juice that day!! ;) Now, onto the national championship!!~



Bless her heart, Dee-deed looks as if something was slipped into her hot chocolate! *giggle*





Dee-deed sure does love her some Boogie-Bears!



We took a few photo ops while we where there too!









We walked all over the tree farm and found the perfect tree! They had each tree "tagged" with what kind of tree it was, how tall it was and what the price was. It was beautiful and the price was perfect! Just what we had been looking for!

We decided on a 9ft Leland Cypress. In the past we had always gotten a Frasier fir so this type of tree was new to us.

This is David trying to cut it down. It was harder than he thought it would be but he got the job done!



It doesn't look that big huh???



We didn't quite realize how heavy the tree was until we started up the hill (the tree had been at the base of the hill). We started to wonder at that point but kept on. Yes, we could have gotten the people at the farm to help us and they even offered but we wanted to do it ourselves......whole "memory" thing going on here.

They "shook" the tree out to make sure there were no critters (think Griswald's here), tied it up and loaded it on David's truck. Ummm, guys....don't we need a whole drilled in the bottom so it will stay on the tree stand? UGHHH....they had to unload the tree, carry it to the whole maker thingy and then re-load it on the truck. The guys who were carrying the tree couldn't believe how big it was. They said there was no way it was a 9 footer. I think they were right! But hey, we got it for a great price right?

We got the tree home, unloaded it and couldn't stop laughing. It was huge! We carried it upstairs into the house and put in on the tree stand. NO GOOD. It automatically started to fall over. WOW! OK, so we had to drop everything and run to Wally world to get a bigger tree stand. We got back, put it in the bigger stand (which now I'm thinking we needed a major heavy duty one, but I digress) and this is what we had.......a 12-14ft Leland Cypress!



Ok now....remember in A Christmas Vacation when they got the tree home and untied it? Yeah, that's what happened to us, but without all of the windows breaking. We were still laughing at this point. But once we untied it.....look at what we had! A BEAUTIFUL, GIGANTIC, HUMONGOUS, BIG FAT TREE!!! We were just in awe at it's greatness! Now ya'll, I'm serious....it did NOT look that big in the field. Well DUHHH, it was standing in the midst of 20-50ft trees. OF COURSE it isn't going to look that big!! But we didn't know!!!

See how beautiful it is? And look how gi~normous it looks compared to the normal sized window! I wish each of you could have seen it in person! This picture just doesn't do it justice!



The first thing David said was "I can't see the tv". Typical guy response.

We stepped back and I was laughing hysterically!!! Not kidding...ask my friend Lee. I called her to see if she could come look at it because I knew she would get a kick out of it and I couldn't stop laughing on the phone. I was crying!!

We had to completely rearrange the living room and we got the lights on....well, Allison did because I couldn't stop laughing and when the kids went to bed, David and I just sat talking about how beautiful it was. David said "I can't stop staring at it". It really was that grand! All of my expectations had been met....and then some!!