Since we had Steak Kabobs for Thanksgiving and will be having Gumbo for Christmas, I decided to cook the traditional holiday-type meal this weekend. I spent most of Friday night chopping stuff and preparing for the feast for Saturday.
Saturday morning I woke up and put the turkey in to roast. Phillip and Archie got butchered by a local barber, then we were off to get our Christmas tree. I know there are a few tree farms around here, but since it was kind of rainy, cold and crummy out, we opted for the easy pre-cut tree. Christmas trees up here are so much cheaper than they are in Mobile! Even the local to Mobile ones can get pretty expensive! We got a very nice, fat Blue Spruce for $25! Dad, just so you can relate...it's the BLUE TAG one. We almost got a RED TAG ($15) one, but we decided on the fancy-schmancy Blue Spruce!
We tied it to the top of the car and drove home. We found all our Christmas stuff and got it out of the attic. I put the stand together and we tried to get it in the stand. Phillip had the trunk cut too low at the store. And we couldn't shave branches off because the trunk itself was too wide at the branches. We tried setting the trunk on a block of wood in the stand, but the tree kept falling over. Then we tried nailing the block of wood to the tree stump, but we were still having problems with an unsteady tree. Finally, we turned the tree upside down, assembled the stand on the tree trunk and turned it upright. It took a few hours just to get the tree in the stand! We had our holiday feast and got to decorating. Phillip did all the house decorations and Morgan, Archie and I did the tree.
The first decorations to go on the tree are the light strands, of course! I got them unraveled and untangled and lo and behold...None of them worked! None of them! I couldn't believe it! Not wanting to trek the extra distance to Target for some lights, we opted for the corner Walgreens store to get some more light strands. And paid high corner store prices. And while we were there, Archie happened to spy some candy canes on a shelf, so we had to get two boxes for the tree! So we got home and tested the new lights with success this time. Finally!
We had a lovely time decorating while listening to my favourite Christmas movie...A Christmas Story while decorating. It has never taken as long to put up the tree then decorate it as it did this year. Perhaps we were all learning a lesson in patience. Phillip in particular, while wrestling the tree into the stand all afternoon!
Here is Archie putting on the star with some assistance from Morgan!
Here is the finished product:
It looks great in the windows!
Sunday morning, we went to the church down the street where Archie was singing with his Sunday School classmates for the service. Below you will find a little snippet that I video taped. Just press 'play' and it should work:
And if that doesn't work for you, I took a picture when we went back for the Candle Light Service in the evening. The service was very nice with outstanding music with cake and goodies afterward. He's the first one in the bottom row. He looks sort of angelic in his little choir robe, doesn't he? Ha!
We had gone shopping during the afternoon on Sunday. To the mall! Gasp! I usually try to steer clear of malls at any time, especially Christmas Time, but it was nice to get some gift ideas. Morgan was trying on some jeans, and we waited for her in some chairs outside the store. Here is a photo of Phillip while wearing Archie's Batman hat!
1 comment:
Jennifer, your tree looks really festive and bright in front of those two great windows. I'm sure it has to look just as great from the outside! And, boy, trees are a lot cheaper up there! Our poor little tree was $59 and it was one of the cheaper ones. Enjoy the holidays!
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