Friday, December 05, 2008

A Daddy job if ever there was one

We broke out the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving - so of course the kids have been begging everyday since then to get a Christmas tree.  And while there are many things I have taken on (ah-hem, been forced to take on) without Paul, I have my limits*.  So the kids began the countdown to Daddy's day off.

The magical day finally arrived.  We loaded up the minivan and headed to...Home Depot.  (chopping down your own Christmas tree sounds really romantic and all but I've become much too practical for such nonsense - pay MORE money to do MORE work?  no thanks)

And we found her - Our Christmas Tree

A little bigger than Paul was hoping and a little smaller than Noah had envisioned (although I soon had him convinced it was a "Giant!")

A stop at Target for some decorations (because I think we owned about 6**) and then we headed home to decorate, Christmas music blaring.  The kids loved every minute of it.

Alex even insisted she put on a "special" outfit to decorate the tree (pink and grey shirt with sky blue capris, I totally get it [???]).

And now 
for your viewing pleasure
I present
The Gunn Family Christmas Tree

(A little bottom heavy - like me)



* My Other Limits
 - shoveling snow
 - unclogging the toilet


** About the 6 Ornaments
Some of my favorite childhood Christmas memories are decorating the Christmas tree with my family.  We all looked forward to it.  Our tree was not the type with color coordinated decorations.  (I didn't even know such a thing existed for quite a long time!)  It was just a hodge podge of random things.  But those random things all meant something, they all had special memories attached to them.  And as we'd unwrap each ornament and hang it on the tree we'd reminisce.  This is a tradition I carry on today with my family.  Our 6 (or whatever) ornaments are from special events and special places.  And we will continue to collect these over the years.  Until one day we won't need the sparkly glass balls from Target.  Our Christmas Tree won't be matchy-matchy.  But it will be full of memories.  And I can't imagine a Christmas Tree any other way.


6 comments:

Tiffany said...

I also loved our hodge podge christmas tree ornaments...and I think the matchy matchy stuff is boring :) We are starting the same tradition...so our christmas tree looks a lot like yours. Matching red sparkly ornaments, and then about 5 random ones that mean something special to us :)
Looks like you guys had fun with the kids getting ready for christmas! :)

Michele said...

yay for carrying on our traditions! we do the same. every year our personal collection of ornaments grows, and we use less and less of the pretty gold and sparkly ornaments that mean nothing. john loves this tradition also, even though he didn't grow up like that.

Faye said...

Glad to see the Hunt Christmas tradtions are being carried on. We now have so many memories/ornaments I have to pick and choose which ones actually go on the tree - but I still get to unwrap each one and remember why we bought it and what it reminds us of. 29 years of memories - pretty wonderful.

Lori said...

Your tree looks great!I love the idea of collecting and having a memory tree. we don't have any decor on our tree, just lights and Samuel still mananges to pull them off :)
About the Ritter bars. . . I have you to thank for their discovery! you told me about them at our favorite things party! Love them, so thank you.

[BrookeO] said...

W(ww) I love your tree! Jealous of the 'real' thing!

PS Alex kills me!

Shellie said...

I am all about the ornaments full of memories. Our tree is filled with them and we love going through them every year!