It has been our tradition for the past 7 years to go and cut our Christmas tree down the day after Thanksgiving. Boy has that added some excitement to the season. The first year we did not realize how big the trees would actually be once we got them home and our first one took up half of our living room! A couple of years later we got one on which spiders had gone into winter rest on and once the warmth of the house toasted them up, up they awoke!! They were everywhere!! Last year we decided on a smaller tree and we all said after that that this year we would choose the biggest one we could find.
In case you have never seen my house, it is very small for a family of 6, barely coming in over 1400 square feet! (but I must admit that I love my house!!) We do not have a huge living room, but we like Christmas trees! Some may think us crazy, but it is something we enjoy doing and having for a month every year. (another note is that it comes down at sunset on Christmas day!! I can only take it for so long :)
So on Friday we all bundled up in our winter gear.
Now there have been a few years that we were able to go in shorts, so it was nice for it to feel seasonable!! We headed to the tree farm about an hour away. Our normal trip ended up taking an hour and a half because Kalli realised that if she said she had to potty, it would get her out of her car seat!!
So we get there and head out on the tractor ride to find our tree. This is the first year that within 10 minutes we found "the one"!!
We knew it was big, but it was exactly what we wanted!! So William got the saw and begin to cut...and cut...and cut...and cut! It took a while to get this one down, but with one good, hard shove from the girls, down it came.
We hauled it to the road so we could be picked up by the tractor!
They shook it and put a hole in the bottom so that it would fit in our stand and we headed home!
Friday evening we drug it in and attached it to the stand and sat her up! Down she came!! It was so tall that it pulled over our stand. We laid it down and drilled another hole to try and steady it. Again, down it came! I was beginning to fret at this time! So we took it down one more time and cut about six inches off of the bottom and drilled a new hole again and this time it remained standing, but it was really, really, really crooked!! I was so upset and this is where our evening went from funny bad, to stinky bad! I took a day God had blessed us with and messed it up! I was a bit at the end of my rope and the tree fiasco was not helping. I can't remember now what happened, but I said something completely unnecessary, very hurtful and I broke my girls heart. I said in my exasperation with whatever happened that because of their actions, I did not like our tradition anymore. Actually, I was not even that nice about it! I knew as the words were coming out of my mouth that I should clamp down, but the deed was done.
Now, did I quickly admit my wrong and ask for forgiveness?? Nooooo, I had to go into the kitchen and pout a bit and try and convenience myself that it was not as horrible as it sounded! I soon apologized and told them what I said was a result of my choosing to act irrational and my feelings were my choice and had nothing to do with them. They forgave me and we had fun, but oh, how I know I broke a little something in their heart that I can't change no matter how much I say I am sorry. I know we all mess up, but sometimes I forget that my mess ups are affecting someones life and are not to be looked upon lightly. It still makes me so sad to remember that instant of my mouth spouting off and the look of hurt in their eyes!
On to happier things! We were able to fix the tree, sorta! We decided that since it was a bit on the tilted side, we would work with it by allowing it to become a natural, homemade tree! We made all of the ornaments on it today! We had so much fun. We started before lunch and worked all day!
Every year on the Saturday after we cut our tree, we have a tree decorating party in the evening. We share a dinner of little sandwiches, chips and dip, fruit, crackers and cheese, punch and some yummy sweet!! Then the girls decorate the tree. We had a great time this year and the homemade ornaments look great! The girls worked really hard and God was able to take us off of the path that my hurtful mouth could have put us on and led us down a path of fellowship and a great time being together!
Kalli reminds us that family is a gift from God!!
This is a picture of our beautiful tree, made with love from God above and decorated with love by our family!!
5 comments:
I like the holiday look! You are so on the ball with your Christmas traditions! I am soooooo impressed. Ours will probally be up this week maybe.
a beautiful tree and I love the look of your web page. Thanks for sharing your not so perfect moment because it was a good reminder to me to watch out for that in my own life. We all need to be reminded of those kinds of things.
And a festive blog background to boot!! At least your girls will remember that their mother was willing to say she was sorry after making a mistake. Your Christmas tree story reminds me of the movie "Christmas Vacation", I love when they get the tree home and it is way too big and the squirrel jumps out of it. Hope ya'll just have many more days of great celebration this season.
What a fun tradition! I love live trees but my firefighter husband can only think about the possible fire hazard. We haven't had anything other than a tabletop tree because we lived in an apartment so I am working hard at getting a live tree at least once!! Hope you guys enjoy it!
I love your tree! It looks great! Thanks for the reminder to watch what I say! I am bad about this sometimes.
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