two trees????

Ryan was home from Switzerland for less than 36 hours before departing again, so we had lots to get done yesterday.  We set out in search of the perfect Christmas tree......

The boys measured to see just how tall we could get.

 

Our local Ace, The Big Toolbox, has a very handy burrito and sausage cart.

We haven't headed into the woods with MeeMee to cut a tree for a couple years.  At Josephine, Costco had perfect height and beautifully full trees for $40.  We wanted to take advantage of our new vaulted ceilings, but any decent real trees were $150+.  We've been discussing having both a faux and real tree since we went under contract on the new house, but it was low on the priority list and we thought we'd score a fake tree at an after-Christmas sale.  After our third stop in search of an "affordable" tall tree, we can upon a sale on a giant faux tree at Ace.  It was gorgeous and I showed it to Ryan as an example of the level of fake I would deem acceptable.  With a $1600 original price tag, his response was, "of course you would."  On sale at half off, we started to contemplate but quickly shrugged it off until the owner happened upon us checking it out.  He gave us an offer we couldn't refuse and was clearly overjoyed at not having to set up this behemoth one more time.  Getting it, and the other garland I had purchased home, was nothing short of a Christmas miracle and probably broke several driving laws.

That sneaky section to the left on the pic was accidentally left out, but saved us from having the tree exactly in the center of that wall.  So it was 10 ft as we built it but can go to 12.

We got the tree up and got to work on the outside lights.  Ben's face upon walking into the living room was priceless, though he does really want blue lights on a tree.  This year our second tree will be a little "elf" tree in the basement for Ben with colored lights and our most fun ornaments.  Next year we will do a Costco special in the family room and Ben will have his colored lights and I will get my tree smell.  I adore our new tree but Christmas isn't Christmas for me without the REAL smell of Pine (or Spruce or Fir;).

To wrap up our whirlwind day with Dad we headed downtown for Sara's choir performance.  She made the Colorado Children's Chorale this year, which is a really big deal, and their first concert is at Christmas.  It started at 6pm and was expected to last about and hour and a half.  Tickets were not inexpensive but we thought this would be great fun for Ben and worth any price to see sweet Sara.  I had been a few years ago and the show was fun and boisterous with kids singing all the classic holiday songs.  This year the program was a bit different and they did a historical take on holiday songs with the best singers singing the oldest songs first, and working up to present day.  Ben did a fabulous job for the first 45 minutes, but by intermission was done.  We could have forced him through the rest which would have likely been more fun for him, but I was concerned he would begin to distract other audience members.  As I knew what they had paid, and because I made the choice as a parent for a borderline age child to attend, we left at intermission and sadly didn't see Sara sing.  I left celebrating Ben's behavior and the fact that he'd sat mostly quietly through 45 minutes of very adult entertainment.  I think exposing kids to the arts in this way is imperative, but it's also important to have fair expectations of your kids and to respect the experience of other audience members.  Ryan had a young kid ruin his time at the Christmas Carole one year and the boy's mom was less than receptive of Ryan's polite suggestion that he might have been too young.  I also wanted to leave on an upswing so Ben will be excited to do similar activities in the future.

It was finally a little chilly and being downtown with the lights and brisk air helped a lot in the Christmas spirit department.

I wasn't the only one enjoying the glow of the tree this morning. ;)