O Christmas Tree - How Lovely Are Your Branches

We had convinced ourselves (at least I had) that we would buy an artificial tree this year.  After 7 years of a near-empty living room, we had finally filled it with wonderful furniture just after Christmas last year.  So I was sure we couldn't fit our usual monster tree anymore (see our trees from 2010 and 2009 and 2008), we would need a more "slim" tree.  And part of me dreaded those first couple of weeks, when the tree would need water 3 times per day - like a new baby in the family.

I searched high and low, and there were very few options for trees in the 12' + height.  A few posts on Craigslist, and a couple of trees in retail stores.  Nothing worked out.  So this weekend, we finally gave up and decided to get a real tree one more time.  I'm so glad we did.  This is not a great photo, but look at this beauty we found:

It is a bit shy of 12' this year, but a wonderful, strong (and very prickly!!) Grand Fir, beautifully cultured by what seemed to be a very kind and friendly Christian couple, who operate a small Christmas tree farm in a residential area of Surrey, BC (which is a shorter drive than we usually make, to get our tree).  Most of their trees are more in the standard manageable size, but they had a few tall ones which they posted on Craigslist, and were only asking $32 each.  What a deal, and a gorgeous tree.  I think it has narrower profile than many of the previous trees we've had, which was ideal this year.  With some rearranging of the furniture, we managed to fit it in the room very nicely.

So far, we only have lights on it, but this is not even December yet.  It feels like we are behind in just about everything else recently, but at least we are well ahead of our usual schedule for getting a Christmas tree!

Making Room for New Furniture - I'm Still So Excited

A most amazing thing happened a few days before Christmas.  We were driving back from a dinner with friends, and we passed our sofa (something told me this was the one!) in the window of a furniture store.  I shouted to my husband to circle the block again, and I wrote down the name and phone number (they had a Grand Opening sign) of the store, before we continued home.

The next morning, Dec 23, I phoned the store, and we arrived there in the afternoon, to check out their furniture offering, and ended up buying the whole living room of furniture before we left the store (which is very amazing for us, usually we need to go home and analyse and measure and think about it some more).  But after 6 1/2 years in our house, looking for the perfect furniture to match our living room, suddenly we had found it.

I am still giddy with excitement, and thanking God for that chance drive-by.  We have been shopping on and off for a long time, and not quite finding what we were looking for.  Disappointingly close, but the colours or fabrics or something was always wrong.  This one is beautiful, with a neutral-tone floral tapestry fabric, and intricately carved mahogany:

If you are thinking that we sound like spoiled people, you are absolutely right.  We are very blessed, with consistently good health, great jobs, a wonderful kids and supportive extended family, a spacious and beautiful home we designed and built, and many good opportunities in life.  We are VERY blessed, and we know it.

We arrived back from our trip to Otter Lake on Jan 2, and had the furniture delivered Jan 3.  So that meant tearing down and chopping the beautiful Christmas tree, which this year was amazingly fresh, even though on our instruction my Mom, who was watching the house for us, didn't water it the whole week we were gone.  It took us about 3 hours that night, before we could go to bed.  Here's the tree on Christmas Eve, before we tore into the presents:

That morning, our living room was bare again (as it is most of the year), with only the piano on one side:

Then came the furniture:

It is everything I had hoped.  I don't even mind that it is quite floral, since the colours are so neutral.  The fabric is really strong, it looks like it will last 40 years or more.  I know, since it is similar to the fabric on my first sofa, which has survived some 18 years as our main sofa, and when we bought our set of 4 LaZBoys for the family room this summer, we moved the old sofa into the basement, since it still looks as good as new.

The neutral tones, and pink highlights in the floral pattern are very similar to our dining room set.  The wood styling / carving is also very similar, although a bit more reddish in tone.

Now we just need to buy a rug (I think that would tie it together nicely, and soften the look of the wood floor), some lamps, and we are done.  Hopefully it won't take another couple of years.  ;-)

Spreading the Christmas Cheer

...but not intentionally, this time. 

Yesterday my kids came home from school to find a package on the front porch.  It must have been dropped off during the day, giving one of our local squirrels enough time to tear his way into the box, and, being that there were only 23 cookies inside, to sneak one.  Well, at least he didn't bite any of  the others, so we have been enjoying the remaining 23.

I wonder if I should let the sending party (a company we have done business with during the year) know about the squirrel's break-in?  So they will know not to leave cookies on front porches anymore?  Or just let it go?  By default, I will likely not say anything.  What would you do?

Last weekend we finally made time to decorate our Christmas tree (click photo for larger view).  Since at 14' it is much higher than I can reach with our step ladder, I decorated the top from the loft.  I was a bit skeptical when my husband brought home icicles for the tree.  They seem to me a bit old fashioned, and also can be pretty messy.  But I am quite pleased by the effect, and how they shimmer with the light, and sway when someone passes by the tree.

We stayed with the lighter ornaments, not placing all of them this year.  But I think it's still pretty loaded.  Many of them are hand made creations my kids made at school or church, so it was fun pulling those out.  My son cut a lot of paper snowflakes for the windows.

I feel like I'm not quite in holiday mode yet, but by next week, hope to start taking time off work, and enjoying the family.  We are scaling back the shopping this year, or at least that's the plan.  I hope for spending time together and enjoying Christmas carols and Christmas concerts.  My daughter planned out the songs yesterday which our family will sing around the piano, including a couple songs she will perform as solos, and the kids are practising "We Three Kings" as a guitar duet.  That will be highlight of Christmas for me.

Christmas Tree - Beauty and Beast

We are blessed with a beautiful living room with 18' ceiling, so when we pick a Christmas tree (we've been cutting a fresh one for the last 6 years we've been here), it needs to be big enough to fit the proportions of the room.  Every year I think we find a bigger and prettier one.  Yesterday we cut down a monster of a Noble Fir - 14' tall, even after we took about 2' off the top.  The kids (who insisted they keep their brooms for the photo, after sweeping up needles we left on the ground from dragging it in) give the photo an idea of scale:

I strung up the lights on it today, reaching from the loft to string up the top branches, and a from a ladder for the remainder.  The two strings of lights sparsely cover, but still look lovely (click for a slightly larger view):

  

It was fun driving home, a lot of people were staring at us, thinking we are crazy.  Of course, once we got home and had to tackle the tree off the car, up the stairs, and into the stand (wow, it just barely fit, leaving almost no room for water!), then we also knew that we were crazy.  But what a beautiful tree it will make for Christmas.

By next year, hopefully we'll have furniture in the living room (we've been shopping for some time now, but haven't found the right furniture yet), and then maybe we won't be able to drag in a monster tree anymore.  So in the meantime, we'll enjoy it while we can.

It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas

There was a light dusting of snow in the Vancouver area yesterday, in the late morning. It was very pretty. I love how the hard surfaces all turn white.

I'm glad it hasn't snowed any more since then, but the sky looks heavy, and it feels like it could come at any time. I'm not looking forward to shovelling, or being stranded at home, so I hope it holds off a bit longer.

I finally got my act together, and put away all the empty pots into the shed, and hid away the hoses, and shut off the hose bib (the one which is not frost-free, the others don't get shut off). Only 1 pot couldn't be moved, since it is frozen down. And a strip of plywood which the landscapers left in the upper yard, it is also frozen down. So I'll need to wait until it rains, to put those away. But it feels nice to have everything otherwise settled for the Winter.

Today we had a chance to get our Christmas tree. We wanted to do the lumberjack thing, and cut our own, but I found a listing on Craigslist for freshly cut ones, up to 14' tall, for $25. That's a good price, and somehow we all felt a little tired, or lazy, or not looking forward to spending so much time in the cold...

Usually we buy natural Douglas Fir. These ones were Norwegian Fir, and one of the tall ones was really different than the others, a lighter colour of green, really short needles, and lots of branching. We had to get that one. So we hauled it home, set it in its stand, and I strung up the lights. Maybe tomorrow we can tackle ornaments. Here it is in the living room (at 11' or 12' tall it is looking pretty comfortable with our 18' tall ceiling).

Here's a close up of the branch. Does anyone recognize it? I found out that it is incredibly prickly - I had to use my rubberized garden gloves while winding the lights through it, and my arms were covered in red dots when I was done.

They also had some beautiful little blue spruce trees, for only $15, so we picked up a second tree for our Family Room. The kids can have that as "their" tree (as long as they help me decorate the big one, too!).

We may never be quite "ready" for Christmas, but little by little, we're getting closer.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot More Like Christmas

I don't suppose I ever feel really ready for Christmas, but we are sure getting closer as the countdown continues. My husband helped me put the lights on the tree on the weekend (I've always done it by myself before, but this year even the ladder didn't allow me to reach the top). So then my 9 year old daughter and I put on most of the ornaments (the top ones and the star were placed from the loft). We still have more we can add, and we need to add the tree skirt at the bottom, but it's beginning to look pretty good (click any of the photos for a slightly larger view):

We tried out our new "cookie tree" kit which we bought from Regal Gifts this year It turned out pretty good, except we discovered that if you stacked only one cookie of each size (which is implied by the kit), the tree turned out too short (tree on right). When I discovered this, and started stacking approx 2 of each size (tree on left), then it looks much more proportioned like a real tree.

My 7 year old son made a cute "gingerbread" house at school, except it is made from graham wafers, "glued" together with icing:

Now all that's left is to wait to find out whether our family will all be able to join us, due to the heavy snowfall lately. My in-laws recently moved out into the valley (to Agassiz), where they've had fierce winds and even the TransCanada highway was closed one day. Here in Burnaby, it has been very cold but with little or no wind. We've had more snow (more than a foot here) than usual, and certainly unusual for this early in the winter.

I understand that the Inuit have 7 different words for what we call "snow". The kind we've had is the dry-and-no-good-for-snowmen-type-snow. So instead, the kids did their best to enjoy it in their toboggans today.

Here's a few pics of the kids, trying a snowboard approach to the sledding:


They were happy to have their cousin join them today as well:

I like this photo of him, caught in mid-air as the "snowboard" is slipping away from under his boots... (Good thing the snow provided a relatively soft landing.)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

After a beautiful clear morning, the clouds rolled in, and by this evening we had a light layer of snow covering the roads, sidewalks, and garden.

We took advantage of the good weather, to go to a Christmas Tree farm, and cut down a beautiful Douglas Fir. This year we tried out the Aldor Acres farm in Langley. After cutting the tree, we enjoyed visiting the animals, all of which are friendly and can be petted. There were some very small bunnies to hold. The goats had a few small kids. The horse had a foal, as did one of the donkeys. There were also pigs, and a lama. Nice crackling fire and hot chocolate, too.

We have a beautiful 18' high ceiling in our living room, and no furniture yet (except a baby grand piano), which allows us to get a pretty good sized tree. Last year, it was the biggest and fullest yet, at about 12'. This year, I guess we got a bit more carried away, at a whopping 15' high. I don't know how I'm going to get up there to put the lights on, and a topper. Oh well, it looks pretty amazing, anyhow, even without decorations (see photo right).

People always stare at us (like we're a bit crazy, which I guess is a fair assumption) when we haul in our tree and tie it to the roof of our car. This year, they commented that we must have a pretty big house. Yes, a high ceiling, for sure. And fortunately we measured the diameter of the inside of the base (5") before we went out, since this one just barely fit. A few others we had considered, would not have. So even with this one, there is maybe only an inch of space around the trunk for water, so I'll need to watch the water levels very regularly! And of course, the tree seems to weigh a few hundred pounds! I got a sore neck just holding it straight while my husband tightened the screws in the base. I don't know how he even managed to lift it up to push it into the base.

The good news is that the last few years, we've been able to enjoy the tree all the way through the birthday season also (which goes from January to early February in our house). I'm already talking about a "camping" theme with my daughter, for her next birthday party. If we get really ambitious, we can set up a tent in the living room, and the kids can pretend to be out camping. Could be fun.