Let The Count Down Begin...

It is 25 "wake-ups" as our children describe it until Christmas morning. That means 24 days to purchase all those gifts we haven't already purchased (which is almost all); and with a small budget this year to do it with.

Tonight we headed out purchase our tree. As we were walking out the door, Christian asked if we are going to the PX (Post Exchange) to get our tree (he is only accustom to the fake ones). I said, "No son we are going to have a real tree this year; one that smells like Christmas and fills the house with the smell of the outdoors." With that, Christian said, "Don't we need a saw or something to cut the tree down with?" Logical question. He was so excited at the thought of going to the woods to search for "our" tree, cutting it down, and loading it into the truck to bring back to decorate as we listened to Christmas songs and drank hot chocolate. Ahhhh.....it does sound so good. After listening and seeing the excitement in his little face it was sad to tell him we are just going down the street to one of the vendors selling trees. Next year little man....we will go to the mountains so you can have the full experience.

Instead, we all piled into the truck and headed down Dyer Street to find one of the many "Christmas Trees Sold Here" lots for our perfect tree; and believe it or not it was at the first place we stopped! We debated for about 20 minutes between 2 trees and then decided the smaller of the two would be best....plus Ella Grace had to potty and she was at the point when "in a moment baby" was no longer working. We loaded the tree into the truck and headed back home....only Ella Grace HAD to potty REALLY BAD now and we diverted for a burger and a potty.

We finally made it home and placed our perfect NOBLE tree in the living room; no ornaments tonight... we are waiting a day or two for the limbs to relax and an earlier start with all the trimmings for a memorable decorating night!