THREE Trees

I got into the holiday spirit very quickly last weekend and put up three trees in about 36 hours.  Crazy, right?

I started Friday morning after Thanksgiving with my mom.  (And by morning, I totally mean around noon...)  I walked downstairs, and my parents had already pulled all the Christmas stuff down from the attic and the big tree was in place in the den.

The past few years, we've done two 3-foot trees, which are just smaller and more manageable, so imagine my surprise to see the big tree ready and waiting for decorations!  Mom and I had a great time listening to Christmas music and decorating the tree.

We have this fun tradition of getting an ornament anytime we travel, so it was fun to remember the trips we've been on.  The oldest ornament might be the "ALOHA" one cross-stitched from when my parents went to Hawaii when they were first married.  Pretty cute!

Friday afternoon, I headed to Adam's.  We ran, and the weather was beautiful!  We were passing this one spot on the lake about sunset, and tons of ducks and geese were gathered at the edge.  We went over to look, and a van pulled up soon after.  Apparently Charles works for the city, and he comes every day to feed them, and these birds know it.  (So smart.)  We learned all about the African geese, the Chinese geese and the newest additions, the two Canadian geese that had just arrived (My personal faves).  They ate bread out of our hands.  It was kind of surreal, and definitely one of my favorite memories.  

After dinner at Chili's, a Starbucks stop and putting the Christmas music on, we got out the tree!  It was so fun.  I loved this day.

There really are ornaments on the tree, but they're just a bit hard to see in this pic...

 

Saturday, Claire and I came back to our apartment after spending the weekend with our families.  It was so fun to catch up and hear what went on.  I was reminded again how much I love living with her!  

We pulled out our tree, and this year, Claire was able to add LOTS of ornaments!  Last year, she started out with six, and by the end of the holidays, she'd been given lots more by her adoring students.  It was so fun to pull them all out and remember how we got them.

My mom's mom, "Nanny," used to give us an ornament each year, so that when we grew up and had a tree of our own, we'd have lots to hang up.  Well, her plan worked, because I have 24 year's worth of ornaments now!  I also started collecting them when I travel, and I have one from almost every country I visited in Europe.  It was really funny to try and find ornaments in some places, but always and adventure! 

Surprisingly, I'm not tired of trees or Christmas music yet!  Good thing, since it's the beginning of December.  This truly is one of my favorite times of the year.  I'm loving it!