Tree Day

I call the day we get our Christmas tree "Tree Day" and someday (when I'm not super pregnant and am more motivated to actually plan and do a few things) it will be a lovely day filled with some fun traditions. First, we want to go cut a tree down. This is very important to me...I've dragged Jesse out to do it every year since we got married...but alas, this is not possible on the Gulf Coast.

Instead, you go to places like this...where they help you take out a mortgage to pay for a lovely "fresh" tree. (Wisconsin?? Really? There aren't ANY trees closer than Wisconsin??)

Seriously, these suckers are expensive! It felt a little like we were being robbed...given what we've paid previously in NY. BUT you just *have* to have a nice smelling, fresh tree! And the guy actually gave us a break, which was very nice of him...we got an 8-foot beast for the same price as some of the 6-footers. (And it really is a lovely tree, despite the fact that it cost almost twice the amount of a fresh tree in NY.)

They even helped Jesse load it onto the car after I cut off my arm and leg so we could pay for it ;o) (Note: we did *not* make the same mistake as last year...you know...the one where we tied ourselves out of the car because we went through the windows instead of the open doors with the rope?! One of our more brilliant moments...and an excellent Christmas memory!)

And here's LJ getting ready for bed after her bath. We had intended to have her watch us set it up from the pack n play after dinner...but we didn't realize till then that we had no lights. The fact that we had no lights is actually our Christmas Mystery. We aren't sure WHY we don't have the white lights we've been using...we just both knew for some reason that we didn't have them. We checked around in all the places we now have boxes, but came up empty. And we both had this weird feeling that something had happened to the lights and we'd decided to chuck them and get new (broken, maybe? we'd wanted to upgrade to LED?). Except we clearly forgot to get new :o) And we clearly forgot what happened to the old lights. But we *have* had an eventful year...so we just moved on!

So instead of watching us decorate, Lily got to go with us to Walmart (just down the road) for lights and hot chocolate. Which reminds me that the other traditions associated with Tree Day are monkey bread, hot chocolate, and Christmas music/Christmas movie while we decorate the tree. There was no monkey bread, as Momma was not in the mood for baking. And there was no hot chocolate in the house, as Momma is taking a vacation from being organized, apparently. Oops! :o)

Side note: after putting LJ to bed, we realized we'd bought the kind of lights that have white cords, not green. Um...this just wasn't going to work for me...so after a heated round of rock-paper-scissors where I lost terribly, Jesse went to go exchange the lights for the right ones. (I know...I lost, but he went...one of the many perks of a pouty-face and a laaaaarge pregnant belly! :o) And a good husband!)

So then we drank hot chocolate, watched a movie, and decorated the tree. Ta-da!

And in case you're just desperate to ask (I know some of you are!) no, I'm still not having any real contractions :o)

Hi due date, bye due date!

At least we had a nice Tree Day!