O Christmas Tree!

Since we make a Christmas video each year and typically use our Christmas pictures in it (although we went a different route this year), I held all the Christmas pictures until after Christmas.

We've made our trip to May Lan Christmas tree farm with the Powells a Christmas tradition.  Lucky for you, the camera battery died fairly early, so there are only dozens of pictures rather than hundreds.  It was relatively warmish, and lots of fun as always!

 Looks like a good one!

 Everyone pitched in.

 Good thing...because the saw was pretty dull (at least that's what Buck said), and the tree was tough to cut down.

The help didn't last long, though.  I mean, who wants the boring job of sawing when there are bamboo sticks to sword fight with?

 When we got it home, and the boxes out of the attic, all Christmas broke loose!

 John's job this year was to water the tree.  Side note, the tree barely made it to Christmas.  We never figured out if he just forgot to water it that much, or if Callie was just confused and drinking all the water.  At first, though, he did a great job of keeping up with his task.

Grandma and Gradpa Bucky came for a visit the following weekend, so we saved the hard work for them to help :)

 John and Eve were very diligent with decorating the tree this year and really enjoyed it.

 Jake did his best to help.

All hands on deck (sort of)

Notice from the progression that Ellie is not near the tree by herself.  She was in a bit of a mood and wanted nothing to do with hanging ornaments (although she had enjoyed putting the lights on the day before).  You can see that Buck was trying to help.  I wonder what could turn her around...hmmmm

 The family favorite.  I can't remember who gave this to us, but the kids love the leg lamp from A Christmas Story.  It quotes a few lines from the movie.  "Fra-gil-ehh"

 And then she really got into hanging ornaments.  It was hard to get her to stop after that.  That small portion of the tree was very laden with ornaments when all was said and done.
 

Angel on top, and there you have it.