Oh Christmas Tree.

Our quest for the perfect Christmas tree began last Sunday morning.  We had every intention of beginning a new family tradition of taking the kids to cut down a tree, but the ridiculously cold morning quickly put off that tradition for at least another year.  We resorted to old faithful, Lowes.  To our surprise and Addy's chagrin (she is not digging the cold weather), we were unable to find an acceptable tree there, so we packed the kids in the car and headed over to Home Depot.  After a brief search we found what we were looking for and quickly nabbed it and made our way to the car. 

In an effort to keep the family warm, I had them get in the car while I hearkened back to my Cub Scout days and tied the tree to the top of the car.  All was going well until it dawned upon me that I had secured the tree to the top of the car without realizing that I had also tied the doors shut.  I'm not the smallest of guys, so climbing through the window wasn't an option, so I swallowed my pride and recruited the help of another shopper who was kind enough to hold back audible laughter while closing the back hatch behind me as I gracefully made my way through the car.  

Here I am attempting to navigate my way through a car that isn't necessarily built to accommodate a man of my size climbing through it.

Addy, who was still pretty upset that we took her outside in frigid temperatures, was none too happy about my little mishap with the doors.

I am happy to report that we did make it home with the tree still intact, and after Sara gracefully climbed through her window and retrieved a scissors and successfully freed the rest of us, the tree was erected in our living room.

Due to Sara's travel this week, and a few other things going on, we weren't able to decorate the tree until yesterday.  I had tried to do my best to keep the tree watered over the past few days, but it seemed to be drying out.   With that revelation Sara sprang into action and came up with the good idea to take the tree out of the stand and cut off an inch or so of the bottom, allowing the tree to take in more water.

Three types of saws and a about a half gallon of water on our hardwood floors later, the project was completed and the tree was back in the house.

Decorating the tree was a bit of an adventure, as we had to deal with a very persistent ornament caper.  You can probably pick out the picture taken right after she was caught red-handed.

Thanks to our resident sticky fingers, ornaments on our tree begin about three feet off the ground.