Merry Christmas! I hope this finds all of you having a joyful, fun-filled day, whether or not you're celebrating Jesus' birth. Since none of you will probably see our home in its holiday finest, I'd like to show you our tree. We're very excited about it.
First off, I'm psyched because it's real! My family has always had artificial trees (albeit very realistic-looking ones), because poor Andrew is allergic to something conifer-related and, of course, we'd rather have a healthy, happy brother/son/self than a genuine Douglas fir.
Secondly, we practically cut it down ourselves. Well, not really. We did do some market research, though. On the day after Thanksgiving, a whole bunch of Christmas tree vendors set up shop along the sidewalks, so you'll probably hit one every 10 blocks or so. In our area, there happen to be two that are across the street from each other, so we were able to price things out by walking 20 yards. Boy, did we get a deal. (I don't really know if it's a steal or not, but it was less than we counted on spending, so it's a deal, no?)
Thirdly, we made all the decorations ourselves (except the hiding hog). I wish I could say it was because we are uber-creative and had planned it all along, but we just ran out of time. Nonetheless, they are lovely and we both think it's a wonderful first Christmas tree (yep, we've never had one that was exclusively ours).
Here's how it all went down:
First off, I'm psyched because it's real! My family has always had artificial trees (albeit very realistic-looking ones), because poor Andrew is allergic to something conifer-related and, of course, we'd rather have a healthy, happy brother/son/self than a genuine Douglas fir.
Secondly, we practically cut it down ourselves. Well, not really. We did do some market research, though. On the day after Thanksgiving, a whole bunch of Christmas tree vendors set up shop along the sidewalks, so you'll probably hit one every 10 blocks or so. In our area, there happen to be two that are across the street from each other, so we were able to price things out by walking 20 yards. Boy, did we get a deal. (I don't really know if it's a steal or not, but it was less than we counted on spending, so it's a deal, no?)
Thirdly, we made all the decorations ourselves (except the hiding hog). I wish I could say it was because we are uber-creative and had planned it all along, but we just ran out of time. Nonetheless, they are lovely and we both think it's a wonderful first Christmas tree (yep, we've never had one that was exclusively ours).
Here's how it all went down:
Last Saturday: We picked out a tree. There had been an ice storm the night before, so everything was looking particularly rustic. We were hoping to get a three-footer. Not so much.
See? The place looks like a regular Christmas tree lot only skinnier. After the nice attendant got it all trimmed, packed up, and ready to go, we threw it in the trunk of a cab and took it home. How many of you can say that's how you got your tree home this year? Yes, we are an unusual bunch.
Last night: Remember how I said we bought 4,500 cookie cutters? Well most of them were Christmas- and winter-related ones. Ian made his favorite gingerbread cookies and cut out a few dozen for our tree (and more to eat).
And then our resident pastry chef decorated every single one of them. We finally finished everything at 2:45 this morning!
Today: Here it is! Our Christmas tree. It's so cute it's hard not to hug it!
We're planning to save our best ornaments (and, of course, the hiding hog) and make some other kind of ornament for next year's tree. Any ideas?
So, though this nice, relaxed holiday has been a welcome change of pace from the insanity of our everyday lives, "we miss you" barely begins to cover the way we're feeling today. Thank you all for your greetings from afar, and especially our families for the massive amount of gifts and goodies. You're beyond generous. We are so blessed to be loved by you and are looking forward to celebrating Christ's birth together once again.
How was your day?
The snow started at about quarter til one as I was getting ready to go to the gym during my lunch break. The first flakes were sparse (about one per cubic yard of sky), but they were humongous, as if the clouds were clogged and had finally burst. 
