Redecorating the Tree

So, this is kind of a funny story...

This is what our tree looked like yesterday morning. Because we spent so much money on gifts this year (notice the huge boxes) we decided to use our fake tree rather than buying a real tree. I know that Craig absolutely loves real Christmas trees, but he convinced me it was okay to focus our funds elsewhere. "We can always get a real tree next year." Well, the universe had different plans.

Craig's bowling league had their White Elephant/$5 gift exchange last night. The way it works is everyone brings a gift and places it on the back table. Once you bowl your first strike, you can go pick out a gift to take home. One of our friends, Travis, runs the Christmas Tree lot on 90th south and 13th west, so he brought in a tree for his exchange. Craig was so excited! He wanted that tree. He convinced his team to help him out. They agreed and Gary was the first person to get a strike, so he grabbed the tree for Craig and he picked his own gift once Craig bowled his strike.

Now the only problem was getting it home. Our little Dodge Neon isn't exactly roomy, especially with Brayden in the backseat, but we made it work. Can you see Brayden? (By the way, this also goes to show how tiny this tree was. It fit in our backseat!)

Well, we got it home. While I put Brayden to bed, Craig ran over to Harmon's to buy some Sprite for the tree. Then we both got to work taking the fake tree down and putting our new tree up. I know it's only a week before Christmas, but the look on Craig's face made it totally worth it.

All day today, Brayden has been adding his own touch to the tree. I think the clumped clusters of ornaments adds personality and I love it! I always underestimate what a real tree does to spruce up the holidays for both of my boys. I'm so glad we didn't miss out on that this year.