Tree Trimming

We bought our Christmas tree from a woodcutter who lives on the edge of the Meinweg, which is a local, forested national park. We pulled up to a normal looking house with this sign out front, and were thankful that this place had been recommended to us because we never would have found it on our own.



We wandered around the backyard, checking out the trees and gawking at the huge stacks and rows of cut wood. The lady who came outside to help pointed us in the direction of a pretty tree with soft needles (better for the children).



She wrapped it up and offered to do the same to Brennan, then popped inside to grab some chocolate treats for the kids.







After a somewhat protracted debate about how to best fit the tree into our living room, which included lots of couch lifting, many sighs and grumbles, and a threat to break out the graph paper, we finally got the tree up. Here are the boys working together to string the lights.







Let the decorating commence! If the tree lights look a bit overly bright that's because they aren't meant to be used with a transformer and most of them did end up going supernova within a day. We put some German lights on but they were very energy efficient and not twinkly enough. Fortunately we had one string of white lights that stayed unnaturally bright without dying so we mixed those in to good effect.





Time for the star!







Our beautiful tree. It's true that this is not the typically fluffy American Christmas tree and is vaguely reminiscent of Dr. Seuss illustrations, (although it really showcases the ornaments!) but we love it.