The beginning of a new Tradition?

Well it has happened.... hell has officially frozen over in our cabin. We went to town yesterday and came home with an A.R.T.I.F.I.C.I.A.L Christmas Tree and guess what?! I LOVE IT!!

Each year, the past 17 to be exact, we have went out, found the Perfect Tree, chopped it down, decorated and enjoyed it for a few weeks until I had to take it down before New Year's.  It is something we have always enjoyed doing together as a family - I love it, Craig loves it, and the Kids love it. We even have an axe that is only used for chopping down our tree each year -- that's how much we all love it.

Sadly, as previously mentioned, the one we cut down this year met it's untimely demise last week and so we decided to take a different path with only 7 days left until Christmas as we simply could not see chopping down another one. We looked at a few different places and found one at Wal-Mart that looked good -- and it was PRE-Lite -- that in itself was the seller for me(not to mention the good price!) I was so excited to get it home, set it up and decorated. I admit it turned out better than I ever expected and next week I am going to see if I can find a few more on sale.

2010 Christmas Tree  

I think it is a turning point for us and I know that I for one am So Happy, So Happy! No more allergic reactions while decorating, no more sweeping up needles each night, no more making sure there is plenty of water in the bucket while at the same time making sure the dog does not drink out of the bucket. Of course this one doesn't smell all piney and all but I have no problem getting those needles that small like trees to give it that woodsy smell(something to add to my ever-growing Mart list, more on that after Christmas).

Now that the tree is up and looking beautiful, I am ready for the crazy week I have ahead. Just knowing that each night I can come home and snuggle into the recliner beside the wood stove and enjoy the ambiance of the lights on our beautiful tree -- It's the little things that make me Smile.

Christmas without a tree....

Well hopefully not -- However, I did have to totally remove everything from our tree due to it's untimely demise this week. We have only had it about 9 days and it always had a full bucket of water but for some reason it simply withered away :(

So for the time being we are treeless at the Boling Abode. This is in part due to the dead tree, the snow and now ice that we have had all week. Hopefully the Sun will shine tomorrow, dry things out a little, and we can go find a new tree. I am missing my late nights sitting by the fire with just the Christmas Lights as company!!
 
Here are some trees I found to ogle at until we get our new one.

This is my fave -- it is Em at Bloomingdale's in Chicago last weekend :)

Eli has his own agenda!!

So since I am allergic to the Christmas Trees we normally cut down to decorate, this year we decided to try a different kind which was cut in North Carolina and being sold by the tree farm we have been going to lately. Well everyone was on board with this except for Eli. He was having major issues that we were changing our tradition just because "your arms get a rash when you put the lights on!!" He kept insisting he was not happy with the change but decided that in the end I wasn't going to change my mind.

A few days later Eli comes in the door with a huge branch he had found on the mountain. He took it in his room, propped it up against the wall, added some lights and then some ornaments. He quickly came to figure out that each time he walked by it or really even breathed that the branch fell over and that wasn't going to work at all.

On Saturday afternoon I went outside and saw Eli up on the mountain behind the house. I asked him what he was doing and he said "I am starting my own tradition!!" He was chopping down his own tree and was as happy as can be while doing it!

This time however he got a pot to stand it in before decorating.

All in all I think we were both very pleased with his hard work!

Christmas Past - 2007

I have been coming across photos from Christmas's Past and will be sharing them the next few weeks.

Todays post is all the Christmas Trees that we "visited" last year.

Our Tree

The Cochran Tree

The Boling Tree


The Cochran Tree (One of many!)

2008 Boling Christmas Tree Decorating

We went down for dinner and tree decorating at the Boling's on Sunday night.

There were some funny moments from Abram as usual -- he seemed to "accidentally" drop ornaments and then would stare at them in shock :):)
(Sorry Charity - but it is cute even if he is pantless!)

I had to get the requisite "ornament placing" photo of all the kids in :)