holy christmas tree batman!

now that we are officially home owners it is time for brett and i to start creating our own family traditions. we decided to start by cutting down our own christmas tree after thanksgiving. b/c we are not huge advocates of cutting down precious oxygen-giving trees we have, in the past, always had a potted tree, the same one for three years. but my dear friend (truly my dearest) katy h. killed our potted tree while we were away in Africa. a little water goes a long way my friend...a little dab will do ya'. no hard feelings.

but b/c of our sad loss and our (or my) dutch genes unwilling to spend $30 on a tree at meijer, this year we had to somehow find a tree that didn't cost money and that we wouldn't feel guilty about cutting down. my dad had the perfect solution. he invited us over to his house to tromp through his woods to find ourselves the perfect tree. You see, in the back there is a power line under which the trees need to be kept clear. So, since they would have to be cut down eventually and the fact that my father does not charge, brett and i decided that this was definately the place to find our tannenbaum.

It was a perfect day-sunny and crisp. bundled in our winter's finest, me in big blue and brett in his recycled bottle hat, we stomped through the woods waiting for that certain tree to whisper its piney secrets to us. 'i'm the best,' 'pick me,' 'i will bring you christmas joy,' 'i would never dream of burning down your new house!' we picked that one. he's a beaut.


and apparently he was able to continue growing on our trip home. once we got him inside we realized how big he actually was! he literally filled our ENTIRE living room with his prickly green spikes. his top bent against the ceiling! it was us against him. luckily we had a handsaw so we won the battle quite easily. we chopped a good two and half feet off the bottom reducing his span from about 7 feet down to about 5. now he stands in all of his decorated glory in the corner of our room...only slightly blocking our view of "LOST."

as for decorations, we went with what we had...golf and skiis. you see, brett's family has been preparing him for marriage since he was a wee tot by giving him an ornament a year, golf and ski ornaments. it's funny how you can be branded for the rest of your life just by saying that you like something when you are young. granted brett loves golf and skiing...but golf and skiing does not make the man...maybe 75% of the man, but still he does like other things, like chocolate. hopefully that trend will catch on this christmas...anyway, thank you nelsons for helping us to decorate our first tree. i was able to contribute a few ornaments too. some colourful balls i bought at target and a few crocheted snowflakes lovingly made by my grandma schipper. these are my favorites. she doesn't remember how to make those ornaments anymore, but by looking at them i am able to remember her small soft hands working away. those same hands used to make me slippers too.

we didn't have a lot of lights for the tree...but enough. in the evening he provides just enough light to be romantic. wie treu sind deine Blätter! -SN