O Christmas Tree

We have a Christmas tree tradition that we do each and every year. {I know, duh, that is what makes it a tradition!}. Blame it on childhood allergies but I absolutely have to have a real Christmas tree each year.  There is just something about the feel and smell of a live tree that screams CHRISTMAS to me.
Thankfully, we live in the suburbs which makes this pretty easy to do. The first step is to get everyone ready for the trip the tree farm.

Christmas spirit engaged!  We all hopped in the car and made the very far (2 mile) journey to the Christmas tree farm.

It is here that the yearly debate began.

vs.

In the end, yellow almost always wins!  So, we grabbed the guy and got some branches cut off

And the extra needles shaken out

That guy is our friendly tree guy.  Poor thing was the only working at the time we were there and he was hustling to cut, shake, wrap and load trees for lots of people!  So, after shaking, we of course sent our tree through the wrapper

We got him home and into the stand (the tree...not the guy).  That is when the real fun begins!  I love to decorate the tree.  I spend loads of time putting ornaments on and repositioning them as I add news ones.  It is a painful detailed process.  I just have so many ornaments that I love that I want to ensure they are all seen.

Then, the tree skirt goes on.

The tree is complete!

We even found someone sleeping in the tree one evening.

Do you get a live tree?  Do you spend hours decorating any tree?