Tree Time

With Christmas around the corner it was time for a tree last weekend. We debated over fake vs. real for a while and eventually agreed that for our first “married” tree we wanted a real one. I was nervous about this little adventure because we all remember the last time we tried this (see #2). It almost ended a relationship. With only 3 married months under our belt I didn’t want this to be the beginning of a very long year.
I have to say, it was actually a great experience. We walked the tree lot for a while, and selected a few we liked, narrowed it to one and took the slip to the tree guy. In total it took about 30 min, no arguing, no crying….but that was only step one.


Once the tree was loaded we headed home, got it in a stand and trimmed the bottom. Again…peace on earth at the Gaines house. I think the only, and very brief, issue of the day was colored vs. white lights. I told him he could have colored, even offered to run and get them at the store. I’m working on compromise because we all know I love the white lights. He thought about it and decided white would be alright.
We also decided we needed some shared ornaments, ones that were new for us both to add to the ones we brought along. So we did some searching and now have an Eiffel tower (Paris honeymoon), a golf ball (Chris), and a cowboy boot (me becoming Texan). So we mixed the old and the new, added the lights…and voila. Here is our beautiful tree.