oh christmas tree

Look at our pretty tree! With all the pretty ornaments! And shiny lights! Isn't it hilarious how Christmas time turns everyone into a toddler with a 10 second attention span? Oooh, shiny pretty things! I thought I would share some of our Christmas traditions with all my fabulous blog readers out there. And since I haven't heard from most of you in a while, I thought I would ask you to comment and tell me your favorite Christmas tradition. (Hint hint. Please leave a comment. I sit on a couch all day people. I have nothing else to get me through the week).

Every year we get our Christmas tree at this gas station in Raleigh by the NC Fair Grounds. I mean, for serious this place is straight ghetto. Like with the oddest collection of stuff inside ever. And random boxes of weird knick knacks lying around (ace bandages anyone? or perhaps some stained glass windows?) But they have the cheapest trees, so we count it all as part of the journey. This year, Brian got to pick out the tree by himself. Which of course means he had to pack me up in the car, drive me around the lot (slowly so I could make sure to peruse every tree), carry the selected tree over to the sketchy old man with a slightly less than full set of teeth for wrapping, rope it to the top of the car, take it off the car at home, and put it up in the house. All by himself. So strong and manly!

One of our other Christmas traditions is that we get the Christmas presents wrapped as soon as we can so we can have them sitting in all their gifty splendor under the tree to look at. This year was an online Christmas. I usually love going through the stores, shopping with friends, picking out the perfect gifts. But since they have yet to build a TJ Maxx in my dining room, I had to resort to a digital shopping cart this year. Thank you Cyber Monday!

Once again we find ourselves
enmeshed in the holiday season,
that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones
in sharing centuries-old traditions
such as trying to find a parking space at the mall.
We traditionally do this in my family
by driving around the parking lot
until we see a shopper emerge from the mall,
then we follow her, in very much the same spirit
as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago
followed a star, week after week,
until it led them to a parking space.
~Dave Berry