" Katie Made Me Do It !"

So as I said in my previous post, I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the Christmas decorations. They are laying all over the dining room table and floor.

 

That's as far as I got. 

Just about every weekend my daughter Katie spends Friday night at her friend Natasha's house then Natasha spends Saturday night here and I take them to church on Sunday morning than Natasha goes home.

 

 

I decided to wait until Saturday evening and have the girls help me decorate the house and the tree. They both seemed good with this as long as there was homemade hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookies involved.

 

 

Every year we buy a real tree. My family had always done this for as long as I can remember. When I met my husband, Jake, he had an artificial one. It was very pretty and we used it for several years until one day when we discovered that one of our cats had been chewing it. 

 

She almost died from it. Our veterinarian saved her. He suggested that we always buy a real tree as artificial ones can be very dangerous to pets that like to chew!

 

So we gave the artificial one to our oldest daughter who needed one at the time. I told Katie that we should go purchase one today and put it up so that it had time to settle by the weekend.

 

Off to our favorite tree farm we went. Most years we have done this together it has been frightfully cold. Today however the sun was shining and it was a cool but not too cool 48 degrees.

 

 

We always have to take into consideration a few things when purchasing our tree. My car for one. It is a station wagon and the back seats fold down but we still have to watch the length of the tree we purchase. Also it has to be of a size that Kate and I can carry ourselves into the house. One of us will hold the tree as straight as we can while the other turns the screws on the tree stand.

Oh and I always saw a few inches off of the trunk for better water absorption. For this I always get a scolding from my husband as he says I always use the wrong saw. So I wonder since I am the one that always does this, why doesn't he purchase me the RIGHT saw so that I don't have to use his?

 

 

We looked through several trees Katie and I. I decided that I would let her make the final decision this year. She will be sixteen in ten days after all. She should, if she passes her test, have her drivers license in twelve days, so the girl should be able to pick out a darn Christmas tree right?

 

 

Well pick one out she did.... 

Things are still scattered all about. With bringing the tree in from the car. Sawing four inches off, getting it tightened in the stand, moving furniture around and getting it into the corner it took Katie and I almost two hours. She was amazing!

We have ten foot ceilings so you can get an idea of how big this baby is!

 

This past year my son and husband finally cut the old radiators out of the living room. This excited me so much because they ran the length of the windows. I would finally be able to put our tree in the front window! 

Wrong. The tree is so big that it completely blocked the two windows! That's when Katie thought that it would look good in this corner!

If my memory serves me correctly, I do believe that this is the largest tree I have ever had! 

I just hope we have enough ornaments and lights for it !!!

Katie made me do it !