a tale of many trees

* tap tap* Is this thing on?

It's no secret we're a family who loves multiple Christmas trees. This is our fourth Christmas together and we've had 11 trees. We put all our family ornaments on the fake tree and choose a theme for the real tree. We have five threes this year which is a new record.
Annabelle and I put together a Charlie Brown tree for her room. I assembled while she tasted the box.

Keeping expectations low by giving her a personal tree with only one ornament. Things can only go up from here in Christmases to come.

We put together our fake tree and as in years gone by, we had issues with the lights. It came lit but we're always surprised that we have to add our own lights even though we do the same thing every year. I don't know why couples in pre-marriage counseling aren't required to put up Christmas lights together before they head down the aisle. It's an activity that can make or break a marriage.
We couldn't find the fake tree stand so Christopher said we could use the real tree stand instead. I said it wouldn't work. He said it would with some cardboard and duct tape.

Look who was right.

Three days and one new tree stand later...

It looks like I have metalic curtains. I do not.

The next day we went to pick out a real tree. I'm very picky when selecting a tree. If I'm going to have a giant piece of the outdoors in middle of my living room I want it to be straight, smell nice, not have gaping holes, and be symmetrical. Is that too much to ask? Apparently. The trees at Home Depot were only so-so. The trees sold in the Olive Garden parking lot were too expensive. The Walmart trees were pathetic. The Christmas tree odds were not in our favor. We went out again after church the next day and discovered that either everyone in this town goes to a tree farm or the people who live here have no Christmas spirit. (Based on the faces I saw last night while shopping, I'm going with the second option.) We drove around for over an hour and not a tree seller was to be seen. (Could I be making this story any more drawn out? Yes, yes I could.) Back to the place by Olive Garden we went. After a few deliberations and sniffing of trees, I we decided on a tree that fit all the requirements. It was bigger than we normally have but go big or go home. 

It's about two feet taller and three feet wider than we expected. It was so fun to put the lights on!

I told Annabelle I needed her to sit in front of the tree to provide some sort of scale.
She had other ideas...like CRAWLING. OMG.

I am now in love with our larger than life tree.

It has a "White lights only because we ran out of time to do anything else" theme.