Where have all the Christmas trees gone?

 If you don't get your tree before or on Thanksgiving weekend, then the pickin's around here get pretty slim.  We went the second weekend of Advent this year.  We tried a new place that brings in trees from Oregon, but it had only trees that were 10 ft tall and bigger.  The few regular sized trees that were left were marked "sold" and priced at hundreds of dollars.  So we went to Home Depot because it was nearby.  It had been totally picked over and only had 5 foot trees left...except the displays.  We got the most beautiful display tree and brought it home.  Only problem is it had been out of water for days before bringing it home.  We like to keep our tree up throughout the whole Christmas season, not just Advent.  As I write this post, in early January, it it sagging badly and very much drying out no matter how much water we give it.

The next weekend I got the lights on and we decorated on Laetare Sunday.  It was a beautiful tree, but so full that it was hard to fit our ornaments on it.  I am hoping to get a fake tree for next year that we can decorate too, so we don't have to cram the ornaments on.  All the kids have special ornaments that they have received as gifts from years past, though the younger kids have fewer ornaments by far.  I always unpack the ornaments and hand them out or make piles for everyone.  Then I put my special ornaments on, but this year I barely had room on the tree to put them on.  I used to be guaranteed the top was left for me, but now the three older kids are all my height or close.  

Bob liked to help me unpack them more than put them on the tree.

Brian is the picture taker for tree decorating every year.  He really enjoys the getting of the tree more than the decorating.  He puts on his five or so ornaments and then takes a million pictures.