it probably won't win a prize

Tonight, we FINALLY got our tree! We decided to just hit a local tree lot since it didn't look like we were going to be able to go cut one down any time soon. I'm OK with that...beats trekking around in freezing temperatures while trying to keep a couple of kiddos warm and happy. So, Ryan picked one up on the way home from work, already bundled and only $10. We weren't sure what we were going to get until we cut the strings, so it was anybody's guess and we were just hoping for something decent.

trimming the trunk

my attempt at showing how tall our tree is compared to the kiddos
(obviously not much cooperation happening here)

our little helper
might as well throw this one in here

look at the concentration on this sweet girl's face
she didn't have much patience for when her ornaments kept falling off

For some reason I opted to go with colored lights this year. I love white lights, but the colored lights won somehow. I usually decorate the tree all fancy and stuff with matching balls, ribbon, etc., but last year and this year I've gone with more sentimental and decided to hang some of our random, but memorable ornaments on the tree. (Of course, after already putting up the colored lights, I found some snowflake ornaments that I had found on sale after Christmas, and remembered my "plan" for decorating the tree this year. I wanted to go the silver, red, white route...but that will have to wait until next year. If I remember!)

just a sampling of the ornaments on our tree
(can you spot the one we just got at Disneyland?)

with house lights on

with house lights off

Although it has its flaws (what tree doesn't?) and the tree trimmings probably won't win us a prize, it's a pretty good little tree and it will work for us this Christmas 2008.