Doesn't Christmas come AFTER Thanksgiving?

Well, it's supposed to be although in most stores, Christmas stuff is now up before Halloween. Go figure! Our younger generation will be completely confused. Then again, probably not! They won't know any different.

Back to Christmas -- Roxanne decided (well, we all agreed) that we would get the tree done before Thanksgiving so I guess since it is Wednesday, today would be that day. So, Chris and I put the tree up -- I sort of helped. No, we aren't quite as ambitious as going out and chopping down a tree or even buying one already chopped down. Artificial, I know but Chris did have to drag it in from the garage. Does that count as far as dragging a tree to a truck or car or whatever? I can hear all those who will only settle for the good ol' cut down tree thinking we are taking the easy way out. Maybe so -- maybe not. We have to figure out how to put that big 9 foot tree in this bag after Christmas instead of dragging it out to the road for someone to pick up. Putting the tree up meant putting the four pieces together (that makes up a 9 foot tree), making sure we find what plugs into what (we didn't master that completely) and then fluffing all the branches prior to decorating the tree. We did the decorating a little later after had all eaten lunch and were sufficiently in a good enough mood not to get in each other's way and fuss over who was putting what where.

I do one thing quite differently -- we do not have an angel or a star on top of our tree. I do have lots of angel ornaments and some stars but on top of our tree is a crown of thorns. I got it during an Easter season so I can assure you that we handle it with care. Anyone who doesn't usually pays the price of being stuck by one of the thorns! It sits on top of the tree as a reminder that while Christ came as a baby, he also gave his life on a cross for us.

Once we got the tree put together and the crown of thorns on the top, we tried to decide whether to use our typical ribbon on the tree this year and thought we might just do something a little different and leave it more simple. We did cover up the bottom of the tree so it doesn't look quite as artificial! lol!!

Of course -- remember when I said we can never do anything without a silly photo -- sure enough, today was no exception. Roxanne held the camera out and said, "Okay, everyone together ..."