Scarlett's Christmas excitement begins...

Yesterday morning we headed out on our annual trip to the Christmas tree farm to cut and haul home our prized pick. Scarlett and I waited in the car while Gregg and "the man" took care of the cutting, bailing and strapping. We got it home in one piece and made room for it in the living room. (My busted recliner is finally on the curb!!)

It was tricky (frustrating) trying to keep Scarlett on the couch and watching a television show while we tried to get the tree into the stand. For some reason it just kept falling over. We've never had that problem before - the trunk was straight but the tree was much heavier than we're used to. After about twenty minutes the tree was up and anchored for security. We swept up, vacuumed and had lunch.

Scarlett had her playtime and spent her "nap" yappin away while Gregg put the lights on the tree. It was so cute when we later showed her the lighted magic by flipping the switch. She said, "ohh wowwwwwwwww." Like a little old lady.

When the time came to decorate the tree we weren't sure how it would go. To our surprise Scarlett dove right in - choosing ornaments at a lightning pace! She had clustered about twenty in one small spot on the front of the tree - we were dying. She ooh'd and ahh'd the whole time. She loved all of our weird little plush ornaments, the shiny ones, the novelties and of course the vast selection of Plutos, Goofys, Tiggers, Hello Kittys, Strawberry Shortcakes, Woodstocks, Charlie Browns and Grinches. We took lots of pictures to capture the adorable moments. I love looking through old Christmas photos, don't you?

Gregg and I prettied everything up once Scarlett was done with her handiwork and we stood back to enjoy our creation. To our surprise it's a much larger tree than we usually choose. And it sure looks pretty.

our newly altered tree-getting experience...

As most of you already know, one of my favorite days of the year is Christmas-tree getting day! And that just happened to be this past Saturday. Twas a wee bit different this year however ...

It started on a chilly Saturday morning. After a quick breakfast I hastily chose my daughter's first annual Christmas-tree-getting outfit. I had been playing paper dolls with her in my mind for days, I knew just what to pluck from the drawer...

She was very agreeable that morning but naturally required another diaper change, bottle and burp session before we finally headed out the door at 1pm.

Gregg and I insisted that she come with us to both tag the tree and chop it down. For the tagging expedition I clumsily navigated our way through the stump-filled tree farm like an adamant new mom. Hey, those strollers are built TOUGH these days, it worked out just fine. Scarlett, however, wasn't havin' it. She cried the majority of that outing unless of course we were blasting full speed ahead up the dirt road. Needless to say we the only picture we took that day was of me pushing that stroller up said dirt road. For the tree-chopping event, we bundled up that little fuss-bean in numerous layers of clothing, a  hat, socks, boots, a sweater, a blanket - you name it. She was covered. The drive to the farm is definitely long enough for her to conk out - but she didn't remain conked once we arrived. We decided to unfasten her anyway and take a couple of pictures in front of this year's tree. Terrible idea. Swaddled in her pink, fleece elephant blankie she WAILED in the open field as if we had her packed in ice. 

That was a very short-lived photo shoot. She continued to holler at me whilst Gregg dealt with an over-sharing tree-cutter clad in black & white camouflage with last night's gin on his breath. Okay, so I exaggerated a bit with the gin. His eyes did tell a similar story though. Back in the Jeep and over to the bailing station Scarlett maintained her position as Cranky Avalon and I was forced to climb into the backseat and "la-la-la-la" her to sleep, thankfully. We headed home. Gregg began the chore of setting up the tree (and shaking it down for any vile creatures) - with Brody's help...

 ...while I fed and tended to a much calmer Scarlett June.

She napped for three hours while Gregg prepped the tree and twisted the lights around it. She woke up during the beginning stages of the decorating. We were happy to have her with us, taking turns holding her while we placed our favorite ornaments on the pain-inflicting branches.

 

Then she pretty much cried for five hours while we worked hard to take care of her and basically throw the remaining ornaments on randomly to finish up the tree.

But when all was said and done Scarlett did sit in front of the shiny, glowing tree and eventually smiled her little face off.

We made it through!!

Here's the finished product...

      
Hope you all are enjoying the holidays! Merry Merry Happy Happy Fa-La-La-La-La!

the annual tree-tag...

Yep. November 20. Opening day of Big John Leyden's Tree Farm. We seem to go on opening day each year, it just works out that way. Our tradition is to tag our tree on the third weekend in November and head back to chop it down and bring home on December 4 - our anniversary. We then set it on our deck, do a thorough inspection for bugs (as you may recall, last years inspection was not quite thorough enough), place it in the pain-in-the-ass stand and drag it inside. We ALWAYS choose the tree that hurts the most. The stabby kind. We try to wear appropriate gloves and sleeve armor but it's no use, we're bound to bleed. Our anniversary is spent decorating the tree leisurely, sometimes with hot chocolate and always with Christmas music playing. It is quite possibly my favorite day of the year. Today's find? Eh, not the greatest tree in the world but it's gonna work out just fine.

On our trek

We wanted it to feel special so we crowned it with ribbon trash

You know that hurt

Just a lil babyyyy

Exhibit A

"It's not going in our yard, Russ, it's going in our living room"

And so concludes our 2010 tree-tagging extravaganza! It's always a good time, I am always wearing the wrong shoes and I am always ill-prepared for the bitter wind. Look out, December 4th... I'll be ready for ya!