Oh Christmas Tree...Farewell.

Now that Christmas has come and gone, it's time to take down our tree. This was Honey and my first year of marriage (or first Christmas together as husband and wife) and we didn't spend it back home with family. We ended up staying here in NY because one of our closest friends was getting married on the 23rd. With that said, we decided that the first weekend of December, we were getting a tree!! Normally, back home, you find a stand on the side of the road, pick your tree, and take it home. Up here, on the other hand, you get to cut your tree down! BY YOURSELF!! It was the coolest concept that I didn't even know happened until a friend of ours informed us that her family would do that right after Thanksgiving. So, knowing this new, fun fact, I googled "tree farms near me" only to find that there was a tree farm THREE MILES from our apartment. How good is that? 

Well, Hon and I loaded up in the truck (after throwing on random clothes that we were comfortable and fairly warm in) and took off. Upon arrival (and seeing the dozens of people already there) is when we started actually thinking out the process. "Do we need a saw?" "How does this work?" "We actually cut our own tree down?" "How do you cut a tree down?!" "What about a tree stand?!" (That thought actually came after we cut the tree down. Good thinking, huh?) We got out of the car, walked up (very hesitantly) to the main entrance, and started looking around. The people who worked and ran it were incredibly friendly; the man who resembled Santa in particular. (Coincidence? I think not.) The workers informed us that there were SIX lots of trees, luckily provided saws, and told us to have oh so much fun. And we were off! And boy, was it chilly..  

Let me tell you--if you've never picked a Christmas tree (from a farm, and had to choose from thousands)--it's really hard. As dramatic as it may sound, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done! Now, that may be my pregnancy hormones talking, but seriously! It was something that realllllly had to be thought out and did, indeed, take us HOURS. It was one of those things that you had to strategically think out. "Where in our apartment is this going to go?" "How big do we want this to be?" "Are we going 'Charlie Brown' tree or all out?" "What kind of a tree feel are we going for?" Good grief, it's tough. We definitely went to all six of the tree lots and probably went back to four or five different trees trying to figure out which one was "the perfect one". It wasn't until I told Honey "let's look around a little more and come back to those" that I found THE PERFECT TREE. IN THE BACK OF THE SECOND TO THE LAST LOT! Lets just say I was smitten with my pick. Then the cutting down process!! Obviously we had to document our find...and the entire experience all together. Honey started cutting it because heaven knows I couldn't have done it. We had videos and pictures just to show our families. (Oh-fun part? We FaceTimed both sides of our parents to see which tree they thought was best! And we didn't even pick the ones they suggested! HA!) It wasn't until Hon got most of the way through it that I insisted I cut a little bit of it, then handed the saw back because I could hardly get the saw through two slices. 

Nevertheless, Honey cut down our most perfect Christmas tree for me and loaded it onto our tree carrier. "We" carried it to the front of the Pine Tree Farm and they asked if we wanted the tree netted. We looked at each other with confusion while the owner informed us that it was basically wrapping the tree for us. (I promise, if we hadn't done that, we literally would not have been able to get the tree into the apartment.) Santa also had the owner tell us which tree strand would be most appropriate for our tree because we almost bought a large one! We had them net that puppy up and took it to the truck! May I also say, everyone up here are so freakin' nice. Someone randomly offered to help us tie up our tree on the vehicle before they even saw what we were driving! We then informed them that we had our truck, so it worked out. But how nice!  

We brought it home, put it up, and took days to decorate it. Now, I have become so in love with this tree that has occupied my wonderful little home for over a month and while I know it is time to throw it out (because our apartment complex is offering free curbside pickup), I don't want to! 

Now, the fun part. Our ornaments! While all of them had a strict color code (black, gold, silver--for obvious reasons), there were two in particular that were extremely sentimental, along with one that will be made in the next week or so (it'll be a sonogram ornament for the baby!...once I get a more up to date sonogram and can use the first to put in the ornament). One of the ornaments is a gold Army ornament. Honey brought it home one day completely out of the blue and surprised me with it! It was truly the first ornament to go on the tree and could've been the only one for all I cared! Then, we got a special ornament as a gift from some close friends of Hon's who live in Cornwall. It is very antique looking and came from this adorable place called Jones's Farm. It was so cute and sweet and will be on our tree forever! 

Now it's time for this lovely, sweet tree to come down and while I know it's just a tree, it wasn't JUST a tree. It was our first Christmas tree together. It was the first thing we did since finding out we were pregnant. It's actually the same day that we announced to one of our closest friends that we were pregnant. Obviously this is just ONE of the many monumental things that is going to happen in our lives, much less in the time of our pregnancy but I can't wait to share more with you all. 

mk.