Its beginning to look alot like Christmas

Mom insisted we put up the little tree yesterday, so up it is! We have a small artificial tree that sits in the familyroom window (hence the difficulty in getting a good picture at this time of day!) We bought it about ten years ago because my mom wanted christmas in the part of the house we use all the time, as well as in the living room. Also, we had so many ornaments that mom decided to put all the kids ornaments on this little tree, and keep the living room tree for the fancy stuff. The best part is that this tree with the fun decorations has white lights, while the tree with the fancy decorations has coloured lights! we have to keep the balance somehow!

There was much controversy over buying this little tree. We are a real tree family, we go out to a christmas tree lot every year and cut down our very own spruce. since we have been in university, it has become my brother's and my christmas ritual to go out to the tree lot as soon as he arrived home for christmas after exams and wander around in the cold for hours punctuate by cries of "how about this one?" "no! look, its all crooked on one side!" and whines of "carry me!" from my brother. my older, much taller and bigger brother. it is a fun bonding time for me and my brother. we usually end up with a pretty good tree, always a little fuller in one spot than another, perfect for the corner it goes into. the worry about the little artificial tree was that mom would think an artificial tree was better, and that we would no longer have the real tree. that would be bad. it is not christmas without the real tree. i wake up and go in the living room in the middle of the night just to smell the tree.

but, in the ten years that we have had the little tree, mom has not given up on the real tree. in fact she is embarassed that we have an artificial tree at all, and is quick to assure any visitors that this is just to get her early christmas "fix" and that the real tree will be bought soon and will be in the living room.