It's not about the height...right?

For some reason, my to-do list this year is off the charts. Make sugar cookies, do a gingerbread house, decorate the banister and mantel, put lights up, get stockings embroidered, buy those things to hang them up, impress Alex's feet into some clay for his first christmas ornament, find a Santa whose lap we can sit on, order santa jammies for the boys, do a special holiday grandparents craft project, get stamps and mail Christmas cards...that is legitimately a *part* of my real list.

There is one thing on my list that I am proud to say is crossed off. Our tree. We hit Home Depot last Sunday and Jason went as his alter ego, Clark Griswold.

Our ceilings are regular height but apparently only the trees in the 10-foot section would do.

Ashton was very excited about the nice sharp stake he had picked up and all he wanted to do was stab everything with it. Watch him murder this tree like no one is watching.

He did some climbing, found a string, and finally he and Clark had a winner.

Because I love a good last year/this year, this was 2013 in the same spot:

But of course now we have Alex :)

All in all, tree-shopping was easy this year. We found it on our first trip which is soooo not always the case. In fact, it almost never is. We have to get one that comes within an inch of our ceiling height (or has the potential with a little off the trunk), be full but not TOO full, be a nice triangle shape with no weird holes, and not have a straggly bottom or a straggly top. Preferably a Balsam Fir.

The good news is, the boys made it super easy for Jason to get it in the stand when we got home. 

Alex was mesmerized by the lights.

Ashton chipped in with some stellar hanging work

and the finishing touch.

Photo-bomb of Pete the Elf in the upper right hand corner...another story for another post ;)

To Jason, who perhaps would have liked to have a taller presentation:

"Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall."
                                                                                                                                    Larry Wilde