We cut down our first Christmas tree at Hann’s Christmas Farm on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We’ve been using fake trees the past ten years largely out of habit but Dan grew up with live trees and has always wanted to have that experience with our kids. When the lights on our pre-lit tree burned out last Christmas, I used it as an excuse to fill his wish this year. He was only a little giddy about it.

The weather was absolutely perfect that day – a slight breeze but still unnaturally warm for nearly December. We trekked through the Christmas Tree farm and looked at all the different varieties, finally settling on a Fraser Fir. I know nothing about tree varieties but it made me think of Outlander and that was good enough for me. I’m not proud. They also had a great playground and  free hot apple cider in the gift shop. We totally made a day of it.

We’ve got the decorating thing down by now. I put on my Christmas playlist and we pawed through the totes of awesome shatterproof ornaments and family ornaments. The kids love looking through the assortment that we’ve collected over the years – several of them date back to my childhood as well as Dan’s and many were made by the kids or purchased over the years.

This year we added two new ornaments to the tree, one a Shutterfly photo ornament with a family photo from last January. The other was made with a picture MM drew of a Sorry game board in art class that I was feeling very mom smitten with. His class uses a website called artsonia.com that sends out an email to parents and any other relatives that sign up to “follow” the kids and we get to see all the work they do in art class and order any photo gifts we like using the artwork. I think it came out really nice and the price was pretty reasonable, too.

When do you start decorating for Christmas? I told myself I was going to wait longer this year but I tend to start feeling festive and sentimental during the long Thanksgiving weekend. This year was no different.

Have you tried Mama Kat’s writer’s workshop yet?It’s basically the most awesomesauce thing ever.