Chris was on a mission this year – WE WERE GONNA GET A CHRISTMAS TREE! 

You see, we’d never had one before, not in the 15 years we’d been together. In between moving countries and such, we just never got round to having a Christmas tree! Needless to say, the kids had also never had one in our home.

But, the kids are both old enough to know the concept of celebration and trees and presents and such, so we thought it’d be a nice idea to fully immerse ourselves in the Christmas spirit and get a tree!

But Chris decided a fake tree just. wouldn’t. do.

He wanted a REAL Christmas tree.

I was kind of dubious. I wondered, would it sound better in theory than in real life? Would it be really messy and just crappy looking? But he was a man on a mission, and hunted one down. We headed to Far East Flora and selected our own fresh Christmas tree. Easy peasy!

The kids were only mildly excited when they saw our naked Christmas tree standing there the next morning when they woke up. They only really only got into it when they discovered they could hang baubles and such on it!

And because I’m a bit of a minimalist (or rather, I try to be) when it comes to decor, I had zero tolerance for all sorts of random/gaudy ornaments hanging everywhere and weighing the tree down. No thanks! So I picked up some plain ‘ol gold tinsel and beads and we wound that around the tree. Ornaments were exclusively only from my in-laws and my parents – and I picked out all the red and gold ones only 😛

And so now we have a fresh Christmas tree, decorated with red and gold! And, oooooooo! The tree smells amazing!

It probably looks a bit bare compared to other people’s trees, but I’m happy with that. I like it simple, and I think it allows the beauty of the fresh pine leaves to show through. We put the twinkling lights on at night, and play some old fashioned Christmas carols, and Chris rigged up a YouTube video of a fireplace (to leave on his monitor).

It’s very nice. And it’s been so so long since I’d celebrated Christmas with a tree (and first time ever with a real tree!) that I’d forgotten how magical it looks and how AMAZING our fresh Christmas tree smells.

The kids have been busy eyeballing their presents and trying to figure out what’s in them. They break into song and sing along when their favourite jingles come on.

It really is such a wonderful time of the year!