This year has flown by.  It seems that just a year ago I was setting up the Christmas tree and beginning the flurry of activities that happen in December.  DSC00791Christmas is my favorite holiday and I tend to go a little overboard.  (Probably because I had no Christmas when I was little, but that’s a story for another day.) 

We used to put up two trees.  One was an artificial tree so that we could have a tree up at the beginning of the month.  Then mid-December, we’d head to the Christmas tree farm to cut down a fresh Frasier fur.  (Get it too soon and it’s a fire hazard by Christmas Day.)

We’d make a day of it and do the hayride, hot cocoa and fried apple pies.  Isn’t the quest to find the perfect tree soooo fun? 

  • It can’t be too tall or it won’t fit in the room. 
  • It can’t be too squat or have a weird double trunk.  (We got one of those one year.  Try getting that to stand up in a tree stand!) 
  • And it can’t have any live creatures inhabiting it.  image

 

One year we found one of these living in our tree.  (Photo courtesy of MS ClipArt) 

 

Two years ago, we decided to do one tree (our fake one – shown below). 

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Backstory alert!!  Every year around Christmas, my husband would get this nasty cough that would keep him up at night.  It was a raspy hack and sometimes he found it hard to get a breath.  He liked to blame it on the down comforter I usually brought out about November 1st and I kept telling him A) it’s a hypoallergenic down and B) he would’ve been sick in November had it been the down comforter.  However, that pesky cough would ruin his holidays every year.

The year with one tree, he made it safely through the holidays without any illness.  Last year, with my mother-in-law passing just after Thanksgiving, we weren’t in the two tree kind of mood.  It took all I had to decorate one tree, let alone find the festive spirit to decorate two.  Again – my husband sailed through the holiday without illness.  Epiphany!! My guy’s allergic tDSC00788o conifers!!!  So although it’s tons of fun to go to the farm and do the Great Tree Hunt, that family tradition is sadly over.  But we aren’t fretting too much.   First of all, Fergie (our 10 month old Portuguese Water Dog – shown right) would probably try to eat the darned thing.  Second, we still have plenty of other festive things to do and other family traditions to continue.  What family traditions are you most looking forward to this holiday season?  I’ll share some of ours throughout the month.

Happy December everyone!!