This Year's Christmas Tree

We always have a real Christmas Tree.  My family owns a Christmas Tree farm, so I would meet resistance if I didn't.  Which makes every tree look different, even if I use the same decorations.  I've got to tell you from YEARS of experience -- any tree will look GREAT if you put enough lights on it.  This tree, which stands around 9 feet tall, and is pretty sparse, has 10 strings of lights on it.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but it is positively AGLOW.  It takes a long time to put the lights on it, because I try to wrap each branch from the inside out. 

The past several years, I've chosen a pre-cut tree (not grown on our farm because balsams don't grow this far south.)  This year, I went back to a freshly cut tree.  I was all by myself -- kids too busy for this anymore -- and my husband cut it down for me (and of course, Mollie the dog was there.)  It's a special tree for several reasons -- my father-in-law trimmed this tree at some point -- probably more than once.  My husband sprayed and mowed around this tree every year.  My sister-in-law helped bail it and she and I carried it to the truck.  I put it up ALL BY MYSELF.  So it is truly a family tree.  Also, it's really TWO trees!  It has a nice shape, but the trunk splits about a foot from the bottom, so it has two trunks.  It is a tree that probably no one would have purchased, so I "rescued" a tree from eventually becoming a wreath or some other horrible destiny!

It's fun to flip back through the pictures of past Christmases, and see all the different trees.  No one can ever decide which one is the prettiest, because they are all beautiful, even though they are different.