Christmas, Grogan-Style

It's that time of the year - Christmas time.  No two families celebrate the holidays the same way, and my family is no different.  We change our strategy per year depending on people's schedules.  It is never a surprise the decorations don't really start going up until I come home because I have the most flexibility around the holiday.  I'm also glad because as much as I complain about decorating, I love doing it!  I'm not too good at it (you can tell by my wrapping) but put on some Christmas tunes and I'll do it all!

This year I got home and my dad surprised me by asking if I wanted to go to a Christmas tree farm and chop down a tree.  I surprised him by saying yes.  He wouldn't let me live it down the entire Saturday.  We, of course, went tree hunting on the brink of a snow storm.  It is normal for us to pick the worst day to do outdoor decorating around the holidays.  It was just my dad and I who went out and we have now been banned from being alone to pick out our Christmas tree.  Take a look:

Getting ready to chop down the tree (no I didn't use the saw, my dad did)

The suburban comes in handy, our tree fit right inside!

It took two of the tree workers and my dad to put it through the netting.  We should have know something was going to be wrong at that point...

The guys carrying in our Christmas tree

Upright, it just fits.
(Don't mind the hand my brother just did the tightening of the stand)

It finally clicked something may be off when we realized we needed to buy a new stand because the trunk was too fat for the stand.

Yep, our tree just fits in the living room

Our tree just barely fit in the living room.  We had to move some furniture around so it would fit and people could still sit and enjoy the tree.  You just can't sit on opposite sides of the room because you won't see each other!!

I put 12 strands of lights up.  There are now 11 strands because one strand completely blew and I had to rework the strands after the ornaments were up so the lights would still come on.  Anyway here is the completed tree:

My aunt sent us a mini tree which we decorated and put up next to the big tree.  Now you can enjoy either a small tree or a large tree, depending on your preference.

The mini tree decorated, lights and all!

Take your pick:  large or small?

We also decorated the outside of our house right after a snow storm.  My dad braved the weather to hang the wreaths up on the front of the house.  I decorated the railings to look like candy canes and we put a big red bow up on our front tree.

We're getting there to being prepared for Christmas day, but never the less a disaster may occur.  Last year I ruined a pie pan, cookie sheet, and ice cream scoop before Christmas.  Cross my fingers that doesn't happen again.