my state of crazy

It's almost Christmas! For as very little decorating as I've done (so far consisting entirely of the Christmas tree and the 2 strings of lights outside), I am excited about Christmas! I love this holiday and all that it really is.
Right now I'm confined to the main floor of the house while Lucas and the kids wrap my gifts that they just hauled in from the store. He's been working LOOOOONG hours and has had zero time to go so far. So, today was the day. I love that all four of them went together. I love that all four of them are wrapping them together. I love that they will remember this kind of stuff when they think back on childhood Christmases.

I figured since I'm confined to quarters, I would take the chance to sit down and share a few photos. These are actually from a few weekends ago, but I haven't had time to post them yet. This year is the first time ever that any of us has ever had a real tree for Christmas. We've always had a beautiful artificial tree (really, it WAS very pretty), but it finally met its match this year, and it is no more. Rest in peace, tree. It was a part of our first 12 years of marriage and Christmases as a family.

So anyway, this year we headed to a farm that is local to us and picked out a tree. To be honest I still really hate the idea of cutting down perfectly good trees for the sake of decorating our living room. And maybe I'll look into planting a beautiful spruce right in the center of our living room windows just outside so we can decorate that each year. But it was still fun to have the experience together. And I have to say, the tree smells wonderful. And it's so soft, and actually not sappy like I thought it would be.

So, how about some pictures? I have a few.

The owners' dogs were roaming the farm while we were there. It only took our kids about 30 seconds to make friends with the dogs. They played with them, running through the trees and snow while Lucas and I took care of paying for the tree. 

Ultimately, this was the tree we chose. It fits perfectly in our living room... after we cut the tip off of the spire at the top.  

We hauled it home in the truck bed, and Sebastian helped Lucas carry it inside, where it sat for at least a week before getting its first light or ornament. Decorating has been minimal and slow-going this year. But to us, it's not at all about the fancy lights and a house that looks like the North Pole exploded in it. Around here, simple is good. I like simple. I'm good with simple.