Our Sad Little Christmas Tree...

Okay, I have never had a fake tree before. I just love the smell of pine and the way real trees look. I was really excited to take Merrie and go out and cut our own Christmas tree on the 17th (which was the first time Nathan and I both had off when we didn't have to be somewhere else). Sadly, it didn't quite work out that way. Turns out, the cut your own tree place is only open on weekends. Well, the next weekend time between 6am and 11:30pm that Nathan and I have off together is December 27th... which really wouldn't help us so much. So, we bundled up Meron and headed the 40 minutes to Aberdeen. We went the same place we usually do (Menards) and they only had about 3 trees left. All of them were Scotch Pines and all of them were brown where they weren't spray painted green. So, we embarked on a quest to find a new place to buy a Christmas tree. Aberdeen is a small city of 25,000 people, so you really wouldn't think it would be terribly difficult to find more than one place that sells fresh Christmas trees. We went every place we'd ever seen trees, and there weren't any in the entire city. No Boy Scout lots, no fresh trees outside of chain stores, no road side stands, nothing. As a last resort, we went to Wal Mart and bought this tree for $20. It looks a little like a bottle brush, and I will admit to a few tears as I readjusted my image of our baby sitting under the Christmas tree. It really made me sad, but I decided I'd rather be able to decorate a fake tree with Nathan than have to decorate a real tree, that could be purchased the next day in a different city, all by myself. So, here is our bottle brush tree. Meron isn't nearly as destructive towards it as I thought she'd be, although she does like to decorate and undecorate the bottom half. In these pictures she is sporting what has become her favorite outfit... shirt, diaper and leg warmers. She has decided pants are too confining and loves the ease of mobility of going pantsless... but I guess, who can blame her? I mean, who doesn't like to walk around pantsless? Notice her nifty gecko shirt? It was a present from my aunt Alison and cousins Erica and Claire and Leah, and it is 18 month size. That's right... the baby can now fit in 18 month shirts. Pants are just a tiny bit too long and have a tendency to fall off, as she's still pretty long and lean. But seriously... 18 month clothes is getting pretty big!