tree picking

So, Friday Abby was sick.  Poor Karen had to clean up after her all day long.  Abby couldn't keep anything down, not even water.  The good news was that she was in good spirits still.  When I got home from work, we just took it easy and I kept an eye on her.  She ate a little a few hours before bed and seemed ok.  

When I went to get her up on Saturday morning, I found that she had not been able to keep that food down either.  I'm guessing she thew up in her crib rather silently as I had all the monitors on as high as they would go and never heard anything suspicious.  Regardless, as I loaded another load of laundry, we decided to keep things low key.  We spent our morning doing some craft projects and watching a lot of Mickey Mouse. By noon, she had showed no signs of being sick.  She'd kept down her breakfast and was in really good spirits.  She kept down her lunch through nap, so we decided to venture out in the afternoon to get her very first Christmas tree. :)

Kyle is out of town this weekend, so Karen and a friend came over to help us.  Which, was muchly appreciated.  We told Abby that we were going to the church to pick out a christmas tree.  She got it.  She would ask over and over "church? Christmas tree?"  Yes.  

ready to go pick out our tree - with Tilly

Now, I'm super glad Karen and her friend came because they chased Abby while I checked trees.  The child was having so much fun running around - but, of course, had no interest in "helping" me pick out a tree.  That's probably as it should be at (nearly) 2 years old.

The picking of trees is an art and tradition that my family and I enjoyed every year.  There are a few rules.  Rule number one: the tree must not be too perfect.  It is important that the tree have a few flaws.  The best flaws include gaps in the branches - the better for hanging large ornaments and hiding presents. Rule number two: The trunk should be straight-ish.  A crooked trunk is a difficult flaw to deal with, so I do look for that.  Rule number three: must have adequate branches up top for the tree topper.  There are a few others, but those are the main ones.  

After a little while, I found a tree that pleased me.  I asked how much the tree was and the man asked me how much I wanted to pay.  Hm.  Trick question?  Since I knew I was in the $50 tree area, I told him I was trying to stay under $45.  He said "Let's make it $40"  Sold.  On the way to pay, he turned around and said, "Eh, let's make it $38"  So, that worked for me.  

Now, this is where my poor planning/lack of foresight comes into play.  As the workers sawed off the trunk end and tied the tree to the car - Abby lost it.  I didn't know what was wrong, but she was not happy.  Finally, she pointed to the steeple of the church and asked, "Church??"  You see - we had told her we were going to church and then to get a tree.  And she really wanted to go to the church.  It's not as angelic as it sounds, she has a playgroup at the church on occasion and what she was really asking was to go play with her friends...and she thought we were denying her that. Poor kid.

Of course, this is in addition to her having nothing more than a cereal bar and some water all day.  So she was hungry.  Plus, I woke her up a little early from nap - so she was a little tired.  Plus she's surrounded by trees and people and music - so she was a little overstimulated.  Bad combo, people.

This was the best picture I could get - this was her expression after being told that church was "all-done" for today. 

So, we headed home.  Abby's mood improved and she thought it was pretty funny that we were bringing the tree INSIDE.  How silly of us. :)  Karen and her friend helped me get the tree put up, and after a few adjustments, we got it up and straight.  

While we were putting up the tree - tightning the bolts, checking to see if it was straight, all of that stuff - I thought about all the Christmases growing up where this was part of our tradition.  I dunno, it made me happy to be doing it.  Kinda nostalgic-like. 

I secretly love seeing trees on top of cars. 

(um, only in the Christmas context ...)

our first live tree.

Kyle is out of town this weekend, so we're waiting for him to get home before we do the decorating - but that post will follow soon.  This will give the branches a little while to settle flat too.  I'm so happy with our tree.  I've always wanted a Fir and most of the Christmas trees we had in Arkansas were Pines.  I loved them, but I'm excited to have a Fir this year.  They look so classic to me. And it smells SO good.

So far, Abby seems to like the tree.  She was happy to see it this morning.  I'm sure she'll have fun decorating with us. I really love this time of year.

I took this picture because Abby actually had just said "color cwistmas twee?" 

...she actually just drew a lopsided blue-green circle, but I thought about framing it. ;)