Our First Real Tree!

 And Hoff says it's our last because of having to water it. But the smell the first couple days was so heartwarming...big sniffs of fresh evergreen! Ahhhhh! The whole experience was sort of a National Lampoons Christmas vacation - packed the tree in the car.

 Got it all situated and then began to cut the strings......

 And it whipped open into a big beautiful tree - this also reminded me of National Lampoons where the tree whips open and breaks their windows. Love that show.

 This is the earliest I've ever put up a tree (2 weeks before Thanksgiving), but we seen them in Menards and they smelled so good, I thought they might lose their smell if we waited.

Once the lights were on, we called it quits for a while. The next night Gracie gathered everyone around the tree to sing, "O Christmas Tree" - it was great fun I tell ya. I'm sure we'll be caroling all season long!