Part of the uniqueness of this holiday is that we don't have all of our regular Christmas stuff with us. This means no artificial tree, none of our ornaments, stockings, nativity, nothing. We were starting from scratch. The kids thought that this was a good excuse to buy a "real" tree this year. In our marriage we have only had a live Christmas tree once. We were living in Camarillo, CA and there is a cut your own tree farm that we visited. It was dark, dirty and not as much fun as it sounded. After pricing the pre-cut vs fake ones we invested in a fake one that has been the standard since. This year we decided to do the real one again. After buying the tree, the stand, the skirt, lights, ornaments, tinsel, a star, stockings, aspirin (the tree guy told us to put it in the water for the tree?), etc (a good portion of which we bought at the dollar store) we spent nearly $100 on decorations- SHEESH! I miss having the old standard stuff around.
Of course we got home and realized we were supposed to cut a 1/2 inch off the tree so it could drink water. Yeah? with what? We considered using a kitchen knife and then I decided I needed to go introduce myself to the neighbors. Luckily they had an old rusty saw that did the trick more or less. Once we got it all decorated it really began to feel like Christmas. I love the magic of a Christmas tree. It's been nice not having to barricade the tree this year. Because all of our ornaments are cheap dollar store ornaments and the kids are older I haven't had to move the ornaments to the top. Now if we can just keep the tree alive until Christmas. :)
One of the "projects" Lauren tackled most recently was to design a 2010 calendar. Initially I didn't realize what she was doing, so she created it from scratch using Microsoft word to input tables and researching holidays. She imported pictures and graphics the whole thing. Then she wanted to print. I took one look and knew it would use up at least 2 ink cartridges and then we would have to bind it. Sooo... instead I showed her how simple it is to go to Costco.com and drop in a few photos, personalize the dates and for $10 (plus shipping) a calendar. I felt bad she did all that work, but it was a good learning experience. :)
To complete her calendar Lauren wanted a Christmasy picture of the family. Because we don't really know anyone here and it seems weird to ask complete strangers to come take a picture of us we were going to go to Walmart and have a family photo- besides it would be nice for the family Christmas card. After pricing it ($200 for the copyright release) we decided to forgo that option. Instead we put the little timer function on our camera to use. VOILA!! One family photo complete without any copyright restrictions.
We initially bought cheap Santa hats for everyone, but somehow we mysteriously lost one in the waiting. Lauren was devastated and in tears (she really wanted this picture to be just right), but after some gentle persuasion and practical insisting we were able to pull it together. We even let her take a picture of mom and dad with Santa hats to make up for the loss. Of course Katie insisted on having a picture with mom too. I love my Katie Bug!
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