decorating for Christmas

On Tuesday night, Grant demanded we get a tree. Okay, not really, but almost. He really loves Christmas, and really loves live Christmas trees. So off we went in our "sleigh" to the local Christmas tree farm, aka Home Depot.

Grant was modest this year. The tree is maybe 6' tall, but definitely not huge and surprisingly appropriately sized. Grant is a rockstar and he recently installed a new electrical outlet in our dining room, so we were able to put the tree in there where our desk used to be. The new outlet let us move our desk to the other wall.

We decorated it after Vera went to bed, and the next day introduced her to it. For now, she's been pretty much hands-off, but thinks it is pretty cool. Today she was touching it and giggling. She thinks it is awesome. Attached to the tree was a notecard that asked us to mail information about where the tree ended up to a classroom in North Carolina. Apparently, that's where our tree is from. So that's also why I took these pictures. After V's nap, we're going up to Costco to pick up some prints and we will mail a copy to the kids in NC. Pretty fun, really.

Last night, thanks to pinterest, I made some yummy holiday goodies.  They turned out great. I'm taking them to a holiday party tomorrow night.

Also, for all you doubters out there, I was able to find all the ingredients at Aldi's. I love Aldi. My parents had to tell me about it for about 6 months before I agreed that I could do all my grocery shopping there. I go every two weeks and spend about $130. Grant went with me and said, "wow, if you went to PC for all that, you'd spend $200!". I like it because it is small and lets me just find ONE of what I need, not fifty and then I have to do the math to figure out which is the best deal. They also get seasonal items (hence the round pretzels, holiday m&ms, and kisses). I like seasonal items, because it makes me think I'm getting something special. Okay, so yes, their marketing strategy works. If it says "seasonal", I buy two.

We are excited about this season. Miss V's 1st birthday is in a week! Can't believe it. Here she is in her new Christmas shirt from Etsy.  Cousin Aya has a matching one!