decorating the trees

For the longest time, I've been trying to talk Brian into an artificial Christmas tree, but my debating skills are not the best. He is definitely a "real tree" kind of guy. And now so are his boys. They look at fake trees in disgust. :) And really, I love the real trees, too. They're fresh and full and smell so good! Not to mention the fun family tradition of going to pick out the tree. It's just the spending money year after year that gets to me.

This year, however, since we're in our new home with 12 ft. ceilings, I had hoped we could get a really tall tree to put in our front living room window. However, buying a real tree that tall would be almost as much as getting an artificial the same height. Thankfully Brian was on board with us getting an artificial tree for the living room, but under one condition.

That he buy a real tree as well. The boys couldn't have agreed more.

Financially, I wasn't quite sure how that was going to work. However, the other day when Brian was up at the school for "donuts with dad" for Henry's class, he noticed some extra Christmas trees out (left over from their fundraiser christmas tree sale). He inquired about them, wondering if one might be available for us to buy.

Well, the Lord provided yet again for us, and someone (??) donated one to our family! So sweet! And it is a beautiful tree! We moved out the kids' table in the kitchen and put it in the perfect corner, complete with big, vintage colored lights and adorned with all of the boys' fun and homemade ornaments. It looks great in the kitchen, and I love that it's there...seeing as that is where we spend most of our time. So festive!

The boys love it...colored lights and a real tree!

So the other night we spent the evening drinking hot chocolate, listening to Christmas carols, and decorating the tree...Brian gave Jake the job of holding the twisty ties. He took his job very seriously. :)

As for the living room, we found a great deal on a 9 foot tree at Walmart (and it passed Brian's artificial "but it looks mostly real" test!).




And now, we officially feel spoiled. 2 trees. One real with colored lights; one artificial with white lights. We all win!

I honestly feel a little frivolous about the whole thing, but the fact that we only had to pay for one makes me feel a little better. :) And they sure are pretty and brighten up our home so much!

So, so thankful!