O Christmas Tree

The plan was to cut a tree down off of our property this year to help save some money on the Christmas costs. Throughout the month of November, I slowly purchased all of the fittings for the tree. Than the big weekend arrived - it was time to find a tree! I diligently scowerd the property, trying to find one that would be suitable. After making the rounds on our shy 3 acres, I came up empty-handed. Discouraged, I told Boyfriend I could not find one. Within two minutes he found a cluster of pine trees, with a few of them suitable (in my taste) to adorn the star. Boyfriend said that on Sunday he would pick one to cut.

The ornaments, ready to be placed on a tree.

Sunday morning arrived and he took off on the quad, looking through the wooded trees as I had done the day before. About a half an hour went by and then I heard the sound of a chainsaw. Our tree!! I excitedly ran to the window and peered outside, only to see Boyfriend cutting limbs and throwing them onto a firepit. Hmm. Looks like he gave up? I threw on my Carhartt and headed outside with Angie. I asked if he found a tree. "None suitable," he replied. "What about the pines we found yesterday?" "Not good enough," he gruffed. "Well what are we going to do?" my visions of decorating the tree that evening dimishinging from my mind. He decided we would price artifical trees, or maybe just buy a real one.

We took off into town and found a nice artificial, for the hefty price tag of two hundred dollars. Yeesh. Went to the next store, with nothing better. Back to store #1 we went, than ended up deciding to buy a pre-cut Douglas Fir. We trecked it into the house and the decorating began.

As I began to string the three boxes of lights we had purchased (Boyfriend wanted LED lights, so my 2/$5 lights werent suitable) Boyfriend remarked that we needed one more box, could we finish decorating after he gets another box the next day? Dismayed, I pouted. I really was looking forward to the decorating tonight. After more pouting, Boyfriend gruffly said, "Fine, decorate it tonight. But I can see holes."

With guilt, I finished decorating the tree, trying to find the holiday spirit again, and laughing over the costly splurge on the tree, when for a month prior I had been so thoughtful in making this decoration a non-expensive one.

When finished, I looked back and smiled. It was a great first Christmas tree for Boyfriend and I.

A few of the ornaments are ones that were collected throughout childhood. One ornament in particular made me smile as I found the perfect home for it on the tree.

Even Milo found his way into the merriment of it all. This ornament was given to me by the barn owner of a facility I once kept Milo at. He was three years old in this photo, and even was sporting his pleasure horse mane then!

I hope everyone is having a good holiday season so far, and that your horses and pets have found a warm place in your home as well.