A New Christmas Tree

Well when we finally got around to pulling down our tree from the attic (about 2 weeks into December) we discovered that only 1 string of lights was working and most of the needles fell off onto the garage floor.  We spent several days analyzing what to do with our old tree standing in the garage...
1)try to cut the lights out and put new strings of lights on
2)borrow a tree from Aunt Debra
3) buy a real tree and lights
4) look for and buy a new artificial tree. 

Apparantly there was a run on Christmas trees and decorations sometime in the month of October and November because when we went to look for a new tree most were sold out.  We finally found a tree that we really liked at Home Depot, but they only had the floor model left.  So we debated some more and then finally decided to get it.  Yay!  It is taller than our old tree and has bigger lights on it and the lights are a mix of white and colored.  For about a week the extent of our decorating consisted of plugging the tree in and putting the tree skirt on.  I actually debated on just leaving it this way, but about a week and a half before Christmas I finally got some garland and a selection of our favorite momento ornaments on it.

Hannah and Owen just couldn't believe their eyes when they woke up from their nap and found our Christmas tree lit up in the living room.  They giggled and grinned.  Hannah said "chistmas (no I didn't spell it wrong as this is how it sounds when she says it) tree!" and wanted to stare and stare at the lights.  She said, "so pretty and sparkle".  She thought it was neat how the lights shined on the floor and then she would try to stretch up to reach the top only to say, "I can't reach!".  Owen too loved our Christmas tree and would try to jump up in order to reach higher.  He would touch the tip of his finger to the lights and once the ornaments were put on he liked pointing them out and talking about them.  He really liked Santa on the jet ski and the felt stars that I put on the bottom just in case they got pulled off.

 Hannah's first glimpse at her Christmas tree.

 Awe struck

Can you tell she is grinning as she looks at all the lights?

 This is what our tree finally looked liked...

if only it hadn't taken most of the month to get this way.

This is our Hallmark Keepsake Ornament for this year-2012.

We chose it because Hannah and Owen love to look for fire trucks when they ride in the car.  Grandma often takes them to look for fire trucks at the fire stations around our house too.  They get very upset when the garage doors are closed and they can't see any firetrucks inside.  They also LOVED seeing Santa on the fire truck this year.  For all these reasons this is the ornament that represents 2012 for us.  Owen loves that you can make the garage door close and Santa on the firetruck goes back into the fire station.