our first Christmas tree

 the day after Thanksgiving, grandpa curtis and grandma kathi came with us to pick out a Christmas tree!

everyone was very excited!

 this is the first year we have put up a Christmas tree because we are hosting Christmas for the first time. every other year we went to lodi/fresno and so there was no reason to put up a tree. though the amount of decorations i always put up every year has always has made our house very Christmas-y even without an official tree. i have been collecting ornaments over the years and i was very excited to see them together.

 we gave shelby the job of finding our tree.

 but since they all looked the same to her, we helped a little. 

here it is, our big, beautiful tree!

 and before she knew it, the tree was gone! there was ice in these buckets because it was so cold the night before! i could tell she really wanted to eat the ice. yum.

 the real blond and the fake blond.

 oh yeah! that's right! i'm pregnant. almost forgot.

aren't we so festive in our colors?

 the nice hicks who run the lot loaded our tree for us after they used a cool machine that shakes the extra pine needles off of the tree.

 while daddy paid for the tree, we explored and tried to keep shelby from opening the presents on display.

 she was ready to go to the north pole!

 oh and did i mention that the Christmas tree lot is down the street from our house?

it's so close that grandpa and shelby walked back after we were done!

 the rest of us drove the 3 minutes to the house with out lovely tree.

 the tree takes up a big part of our front room and it made our house smell amazing!

 shelby was so happy about the whole thing.

i wonder how it looks to a little person, it must seem weird to watch your parents put a tree in your house!

oh and the other member of our family absolutely approved of our tree and loves his new hiding spot. 

Merry Christmas!