white lights

I am not a total scrooge I just... I don't love Christmas music as much as most people seem to.... and this year I didn't want to put up a tree. ( i know its our first married Christmas. i know the tree is a big deal) Let me explain. We are lucky enough to be spending Christmas with family in Nevada. And we didn't have a tree so to put one up meant first we would have to buy one... and everything to put on it. Plus there is a little bit of a space issue (meaning there is only a little bit of space and all of our stuff is already in it) Not to mention that if we got a real tree there is the issue of all the needles everywhere and us not being here to water it. If we went with fake tree we would want to have it for several years so it becomes an issue of size and not knowing where we will be living next Christmas and what we will or won't have room for. Of course there is the storage issue, we would have to find a place to keep the fake tree at my moms house......
Parker on the other hand wanted a tree. Just like he wanted to listen to Christmas music the very first time it snowed.  He is determined to save Christmas. So we re-arranged the furniture, then re-re-arranged it, then put it back, then re-arranged it again, and then went back to a slight variation of the first re-arrangement and then we went and found the perfect tree. (fake, although you would never guess it by the delightful pine smell coming from our candle warmer. but still fake so Mom heads up come January we are going to come put it in the storage room some where. Thanks! love you.)
It was the last of its kind... they had to take down the display tree and box it up for us. By this point I had caught Parker's ever so contagious excitement and we anxiously explored Walmart looking for the perfect things to put on our tree.  The set up started as soon as we got home. The whole afternoon was spent meticulously arranging the branches and hanging ornaments. Now white lights reflect off  red and gold, and it is really beautiful. It is the best Christmas tree I have ever seen... probably just because it is ours.

Lesson learned. The Christmas tree is a must for this family. Thanks Parker, you never let me miss out on the fun.