Oh tannenbaum, oh tannenbaum....

Last year finances kept us from getting a real tree for Christmas (my sister Megs let us borrow a spare fake tree that she had). This year, thanks to perfect timing for Jack's Christmas bonus, we were able to do the much preferred buying of a real tree. I love the smell of pine and there was just something about having a real tree for baby girl's first Christmas that seemed the better route. We went to the same tree lot where we bought our Christmas tree our first year of marriage to pick out our tree.

It isn't a big tree (in fact, a little girl that I babysit a few days a week was pretty adamant last week that we'd be much happier on Christmas if we had chosen a larger tree) but we like it. And surprisingly Esther has been pretty good about not tugging at the branches or going for the decorations (mostly because she is more interested in the presents piled in the corner).

As a side note, we have a tradition of celebrating St. Nick's Day in my family. My mom served her mission in Germany and decided to pass the tradition along to her kids. Well, we faithfully left our shoes out on the evening of Dec. 5th and that good ole St. Nick left us some treats to wake up to the next morning. Esther was thoroughly excited to find a book and some bath toys jammed into her little boot and I'd say Jack was equally as excited to find himself a new shirt. I on the other hand...St. Nick (that good hearted man) thought I was skinnier than I am. I had to take my elf crafted skirt back to Santa's workshop to get a bigger size. It is a tradition that I have always loved! But who wouldn't love a Christmas morning teaser 3 weeks early?