It was time for our yearly visit to Winona to pick out our Christmas Tree, and it was a perfect night for it. Not too cold, no snow or rainstorms, just a nice family evening.
It’s not easy to get the girls all together with their busy social lives. I’m very happy that I have to plan this time with them because well, you want these connections for your kids. Good thing one of my goals is to start getting better at planning ahead.
It didn’t take us long to choose a tree. We’ve got this down pat by now. We’ve had trees too fat, scraping the ceiling, and have more or less found that sweet spot between twoo tall, and the perfect waistline of a Douglas Fir.
Tara picked out some tulip bulbs for spring, we all had a swig or two of apple cider, I chatted with my friend, former colleague, and nursery owner, he helped me load the tree onto the top of the van, and he took our family photo to mark the 8th such occasion. With that, we were off into the holiday lights of the quiet and quaint town of Winona.
Abby helped me pot, water, and centre the tree, and we let it rest for the evening to allow for the branches to fall in preparation for decorating night tomorrow. The girls grumbled a bit about two nights without their friends in a row, but they are being troopers all in all.
I get a little overwhelmed about putting up all the decorations earlier rather than later into the season, but I had an idea to find a photo I took of the train setup from last year, print the photo out, and use that as a template each year because why reinvent the wheel. It takes the pressure off of one task anyway.
Now it’s starting to feel like Christmas with our new aromatic guest standing tall in our front window.