It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas....in Florida that is

I have never in my life, youth and now, had a Christmas tree before December.  I've never had a tree up before the middle of December.  Once the company left after Thanksgiving Tom decided we needed a tree and we needed one now!  So on Sunday, November 28th, this family went out and got a Christmas tree.

We always get a live tree.  I've had a live tree since I was a child and I'm not about to stop now.  A live tree is Christmas to me, not something that sits in a box the rest of the year already decorated with lights and bows.  We headed to a site that my neighbor suggested to Tom that morning.  The first thing to greet us with this 14 foot tree that someone had just purchased for $299 plus $150 delivery and set up fee.  I have to say it was gorgeous!

Madison has taken over my job of getting the perfect tree.  She has the knack.  I have the final say.

Tom always points out trees and then Madison and I tell him what is wrong with them.  Most of these trees were simply beautiful.  The guy didn't hover, but came when we called and displayed them for us.  It didn't take us long to pick out our tree.

At this place was also an area to purchase poinsettias.  Tom insisted we get some of those and so the girls and I headed over to pick them out.  The lady was passing out free candy canes in flavors of cherry, strawberry and watermelon.  Disgusting!

It was a snuggly ride home with 5 people and a 6 ft. tree, and once we got home we had to decide where to put the tree.  Each year the tree has been in what is now the dining room and with a huge table in the middle of the room we had to come up with another spot.  We moved around some furniture in the living room and put the tree here.

We didn't begin the decorating of the tree until two nights later.  Madison puts the lights on the tree while Darcy and I get out the ornaments and in home decorations.  (She reminds me a lot of her Aunt Kelly...perhaps they have been hanging together too long or perhaps there really is some same bloodlines?)

We all put the ornaments on the tree.  We have ornaments from Tom's single days and my single days.  We have ornaments that were given to us as gifts and ornaments that were made and given as gifts.  We have ornaments the kids made throughout the years and ornaments that we bought.  Tom use to make us by a new ornament each year, but that sort of fell by the wayside a year or so ago when we realized we didn't have a big enough tree to hold them all.

The finished project is quite lovely and we all agree the placement makes our home more Christmas-ey and warm.