Robin the Tree

As we were mapping out our December, Friday (the 7th) was the day we set aside for going to a tree farm and, once again, chopping down our own Christmas tree.  The only problem was that Friday decided to be rainy, cold, and just plain yucky.  What to do?  We could have waited to go a different day.  But that would have put us getting our tree way later than we wanted.  Or, we could bag the Christmas tree farm idea and head off to a local store tree lot.  We chose the second option!
We discovered a few perks to our new game plan- Garrett could sit in a shopping cart while we perused trees!  That wouldn't have happened hiking through a tree farm.

Tori loved pointing out trees and having Daddy pull them out so she could take a closer look.  After looking at a given tree, she would say, "too tall," and move on to another tree!

Until we found our tree, that is!  So, we got lots of help in the store with our purchase.  And then we were turned loose with our tree on this big cart.  As we were walking to our car, we realized that we were going to have to figure out how get our tree home.  (We had been planning on someone helping us tie it to the roof of our car- nope.)  It was at this juncture when Tori named our tree- his official and full name is "Robin the Tree!!!"

So, Cam is awesome and we were able to get Robin the Tree home quite easily! (Although we do need to vacuum her out a bit!)

Tori and Daddy did a great job getting Robin the Tree all set up in the garage so he could dry out for a few days!

Tonight, Robin the Tree was introduced to our house!  Tori was especially excited about helping Daddy put the angel on top!!!

Tonight we also opened our new Christmas ornaments for this year!  Jared got a Scout shirt in commemoration of attending Wood Badge!

Tori got a potty training ornament- definitely her biggest accomplishment this year!!!

Jared got me a camper ornament!  Here's the story behind it:  My biggest thing this year was getting our minivan, but there were no minivan ornaments to be found.  So, we discovered that we needed our minivan while on our camping trip this summer- hence, the camper!

Garrett got a Curious George ornament because he loves to explore, climb, and get into everything!!!

This year we were able to tell Tori and Garrett all the stories that go along with our new and past ornaments.  It made decorating our tree that much more special!

Garrett was able to help decorate the tree, too- a first for him since he was in the hospital when we decorated last year!

Hurrah for Robin the Tree...

he looks so awesome!!!

Now it really feels like Christmas!!!