my first christmas tree

Decorating the tree has always been one of my favorite activities. When I was younger, it was my sister's job to fluff and light the tree, but Katie was good about letting me help her. She taught me important things like how to hide the wires in the branches and to only plug three strands in a row before plugging back into the extension cord (we learned that nine light strings in a row will blow a fuse). We would drag it out of the attic a day or two after Thanksgiving, set it up, and spend hours fluffing and lighting. My sister and I take the lights very seriously. While my parents would have been fine with using five strands of lights, my sister and I would put fifteen - and the number grew by the year!

Once my sister got married and it fell to me to light the tree, I put as many as 15-20 strands of lights on it, which took 8-10 hours. Often my cousin Rebecca helped me with the lights and we would talk and watch movies - usually Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle), another Christmas tradition for me and Rebecca.

When Steve was growing up, his family got a real Christmas tree every Christmas, but my parents are both pretty allergic to real trees, so we've always had a fake one. I've always wondered what it would be like to have a real tree, so this year Steve and I went and picked one out - my first real Christmas tree. It was so fun finding a good tree, buying lights, setting it up and decorating it! I love our little tree. It fits just perfectly in our apartment and even though there are only five strands of lights, it still lights up the room. We were given a lot of ornaments last year for wedding gifts and for Christmas, so we already have a pretty full tree.

The downside is that it only took a few days, a sore throat, a runny nose, and several terrible headaches for me to admit that it was slowly killing me. But now I'm taking allergy medication every day and it helps a lot, so it's still worth it!

Steve loves the Vikings, so his parents gave him this ornament last Christmas. 

Another gift from Steve's parents. They practice the German tradition of hiding a pickle ornament in the tree. Whoever finds it gets to open a special gift. It's pretty easy to find on our little tree, though.