Our Gracie Girl Tree

It's podcast Tuesday, and I'm not sure we've laughed this hard (at ourselves or each other) in a while. It's a good story week. Hope you can join us!

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When Ryan and I got married, neither of us had ever (in our adult lives, anyway) had a real Christmas tree. We thought it would be a fun tradition to begin, so that very first Christmas, when we had something like fifteen days between coming home from a honeymoon and the arrival of Christmas, we carved out time to visit a Christmas tree farm and choose a tree. That year, the selection was so picked over, and I think we actually got a half price discount on our tiny little tree, because we could only enjoy it for five minutes or so.

In the years that followed, we continued visiting farms, but we learned when you go early enough that you have to pay full price, it's not a cheap endeavor! And we're frugal people. 

Three years ago, our attempts to visit a farm were stifled by bad weather, and in desperation, we drove to the pre-cut lot at the local grocery store. That's where we found we could get twice the tree for half the price. So while it makes for a less picturesque memory-making experience, this has become our new live-tree-dition. (ha!)

We went this year after dark, so it was even harder (and more awkward) to get photos for the scrapbook, but I tried. We got some weird looks.

 We like to choose a tree bound up in a net, because it's easier to get inside the door of our house. But it's a total guess as to whether or not it's a well-shaped tree, because you know: net. We tried to get one slightly smaller than last year, because that tree was a bit on the big side, even for our big living room. We had to guess based on the height, so Ryan finally picked this one.

 He put it in the truck and then went inside with the tag to pay. The entire time, I was terrified we were going to get dragged off to Christmas tree jail for attempted theft.

We brought it in the house that night and cut it out of its net so it could dry for a day before we decorated it.

We also name our trees each year, and this year we went with Gracie. She started out as Grace, because we thought that best summed up our need for this season, but Grace seemed very classy and refined. Gracie felt a bit more informal and our style, so she became Gracie. And she turned out to be a pretty perfect tree. Not girthy Gracie. :) 

The live tree is the one we put in our living room, and it's also the one we decorate with the ornaments we collect throughout the year on our travels. Our memory tree. I take pictures of all our ornaments, write the stories of each one on the backs of the pictures, and then we read the stories while we decorate the tree. Another of my favorite traditions.

 Can't forget the topper!

She's simple but pretty - and in the nights since she's been up, we often leave all the other lights off until we absolutely need them to read something. We just bask in the glow of her twinkling. So pretty. 

And that's our Gracie Girl Tree!