Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

...how lovely are thy, ahem, fake, branches. 

We did the unthinkable. Unimaginable. Inconceivable. We. Purchased. A. Fake. Tree. This. Year! *gasp* *gulp*--is your mouth agape? Well, mine was. In our 5 years of wedded bliss, we've always purchased a real tree, grappled with the prickly branches, cleaned up the oozey sap, aspirinized the water for optimum tree life. And I loved it, mess and all. 2008 marks the dawn of a new (gee, I really didn't want a fake tree) era! We figured it a more economical choice for us at this time, since the $50 spent on a real tree each year tended to be a stretch with our need to buy gifts, too. So we found this synthetic, vinyl, plastic, whatever-the-material-may-be fir at Home Depot. It stands 7.5 ft tall which is a tad ridiculous given the height of our ceilings: 8 ft. Anyway, the 1,000 lights are pretty (especially since we didn't have to dizzy ourselves stringing them round and round) and I've done my best to welcome this unscented friend into our home.

Me and Monkey (tree in the background!)

All of us in front of the tree prior to decorating it

One of my favoritest ornaments, from A. Tam

"Our First Christmas" ornament

Redbird in remembrance of my grandma, Lula

Not sure which cook this is referring to since there isn't one in our house!

Gotta love sparkly ones!

Vintage--I want to get a collection of these going

We had some bubbly while decorating

The view from Wild's Bumbo seat