One of my favorite Christmas traditions, the one that welcomes the holiday season to our house, is our annual trip to the tree tent. We almost always go the morning after Thanksgiving, load up on pancakes at IHOP and then dash around the corner to pick out our tree. Despite the fact that we live in rural Alabama and there are plenty of places to chop down our own evergreen, my girls delight in the big striped tent. It’s a family from out of state who operate from an RV for the month of December and sell the most beautiful Frasier Firs we’ve ever seen.
Since we were out of town the week of Thanksgiving, our Friday morning trek into town didn’t happen. I lobbied for Sunday afternoon, but the girls were already under the weather and we were exhausted from traveling. We hated to wait an entire week, but we finally found ourselves under the big top last Friday night. Since we refused to abandon two of our favorite things, we decided that breakfast for dinner was in order. I was hoping for Big Bad Breakfast for french toast and spicy bacon, but guess what? They are only open for breakfast?! Whomp whomp.
As expected, we were at the tree tent for approximately seven and a half minutes when the girls decided on a tree. It might have been our shortest visit to date. We rounded up some fir scraps to make a few feet of fresh garland once we got home and daddy took care of getting the tree trimmed and loaded in the car.
After my disappointment over the Big Bad Breakfast debacle, we went back towards old faithful and ordered pancakes at IHOP. Since there was no scary mustache to bribe Josh with {see that post here}, I left the big camera in the car and we begged him for a few iPhone snaps instead. He and Ella do the exact same thing to me every time and take pictures when I’m talking or gesturing. In the spirit of full disclosure, this is what we usually look like!
We finally got the tree in the house on Sunday afternoon and had the lights on before bed. We tackled some burlap ribbon and the first box of ornaments on Monday and finished up with the second box of ornaments last night. I can’t remember another Christmas where it took me so long to get the house decorated! I’m trying hard to have a holiday decor post up on Friday, but you might get a weekend post out of me with the luck I’ve been having!
