Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree OR The Legend of the Three Trees

No, this is not a picture from last Christmas. I know what y'all are thinking ........and I know it is a little early for the Christmas trees to be up, but I thought we needed a little Christmas cheer before Thanksgiving this year. Actually, the truth is that next week is really busy for me so I decided to bite the bullet and get the decorating done early (like about 3 -4 weeks early, but who's counting). If you look at the outside of my house it looks like fall, but it is definitely Christmas inside (we even have the CD changer filled with Christmas music and I have all my Yankee Mistletoe Candles out -I know....amaxing). I have to say that I hate my artificial trees (my nephew has asthma so we can't have real ones). I say every year that I am going to buy new ones when they go on sale after Christmas, but I never have any money left, so I have had these trees for 8 years. The good thing is that we will be moving into our new house before next Christmas (hopefully by April) and we will have much higher ceilings (one room has a 24 foot ceiling - the rest are 12 ft) so these trees will not look right - I guess we will be forced to get new ones now :-). The angel on top of the tree above is actually one of the things we bought on our first Christmas shopping trip. She is really beautiful even though you cant tell much about her from the picture. The problem with her is that regardless of the fact that she was not cheap (or maybe I am -not sure) she makes a little noise when she moves (a barely audible noise, but one that can be heard if all is quiet). Her arms move back and forth to make her wings look like she is hovering over the tree (even though she is actually sitting very uncomfortably on the top branch if you know what I mean). When we first put her on our tree in 1999, we were so excited to have people over to our house to see all our hard work and Christmas decor. One night while entertaining some friends we were all sitting in the living room where this tree is and someone said 'What is that noise?' Steve and I looked at each other and laughed and said "I dont hear anything." From that night on we have referred to that angel as Mrs. Ricketts (because the noise she makes is like a faint rrriiiiicccckkkeeettttt). I hope she lasts forever because we have had so much fun with that angel.

This Friday, my hubs and I will be making our annual Christmas shopping trip to Pigeon Forge/Knoxville, TN. We do all our shopping in 2 days. We are like maniacs descending on the malls - we know what we want and we don't fool around. We will be leaving Friday morning after taking Lake (my 6 yr old) to school and then we will drop Kaden off at Steve's mom and dad's then we are off on our adventure. We will be returning sometime VERY late on Saturday night (hopefully in time to iron church clothes and go to bed - yes, that late). We have done this every year since we have been married (this will be our 8th such trip). It is something we look forward to all year. Yes, Ladies, you read that correctly, I have a husband who loves to SHOP! Praise the Lord all who are reading. He gets as excited to see a mall as I do. Not only malls, but we go to all the other stores that I never get to go to with the kids in tow.

So, I don't care if you make fun of me (I have been made fun of before, actually I am pretty used to it). I am ready for it since our families come to our house for Thanksgiving, I will be hearing a lot of jokes I am sure. It's okay if you think these trees/decorations are tacky - but one thing is for sure, no live trees were harmed in the decorating of my house.