the tree.

I grew up in an artificial tree family. Every single year we unpacked the tree from the attic, unfolded the branches, fluffed to our heart's content, and then decorated that sucker Griswold style. And it was awesome.

I loved that tree. I can still remember exactly how you put it together. It was color coded (true story). I guarantee my parents still have it. Those things last forever.

Mr. P also grew up in an artificial tree family. Of the pre-lit variety. You know. But somehow the two of us became a real tree family. And we haven't looked back since.

Lest you think we are of the cut it down ourselves variety, we aren't. I wish we were but we're more of the $30 tree outside of Food Lion variety. Or Lowes. Who has turned into our Christmas tree go to.

Anyways. I also like to drag the whole family out to the tree farm to take lots of family pictures and pretend we went on this big hunt to find the tree, but that didn't happen. A toddler running around Lowes did. We do what we want.

We packed it up one afternoon and hit up Lowes in our Christmas finest to find the perfect tree for our little family. BG is so into Christmas this year and I am flat out loving it. She was all about getting dressed to pick out her tree. She did lose interest after looking at about two but we did manage to reel her back in to finally pick one out.

The next day (Mr. P is a stickler for letting the tree "fall" for 24 hours or some such nonsense), it was finally time to decorate! We pulled out all of the decorations and got to work. BG's favorite decoration by far is this old sucker tree that Mr. P actually made when he was younger. We probably should have put this thing up last. Like on Christmas Day. The kid is obsessed.

Then, it was tree time. Mr. P and I have always jointly put on the first ornament (cue awww..) but lost that right to the little one this year. She was out of her mind excited to decorate. I'd like to paint a pretty picture of family decorating with Christmas music in the background, but that's only half true. This girl was an anxiety ridden mess over my stuff getting broken and constantly yelling "BG! Be careful!". I might have threatened to pack it all back up a couple hundred times and Mr. P might have a running bet going to see if I even make it til Christmas. Still going strong...

Other than that, it was perfect. And nothing was broken. Total win.

When all was said and done, little miss was beyond proud of her tree and I was beyond proud of how it all turned out. Christmas is so fun this year. I am absolutely loving this time with my crazy kid. Cheerleader skirt and all.