O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree! Thy Leaves Are So Unchanging

On Tuesday night Nick and I went in search of our Christmas tree.  We were trying to get one in Beacon Hill, otherwise we would have to rent a car and that is just too much work!  During the day, I called Top Shelf, which is at the Charles Street Circle as they had trees in the past, and sure enough, they did this year as well and were open until 10, perfect!

We walked on down to Top Shelf, all bundled up, and when we arrived, there were NO trees and I started to panic.  All they had were topiary trees that were max 2.5 feet, which was just not going to work.  Looking lost, the sales guy came up to us and even though we felt dumb, we asked if they had any regular trees....Sure enough they did, the trees had been put away for the night in the back alley behind the wreaths and the swags (8 is not THAT late but they were more than happy to dig it all out for us). 

To put a little perspective on this, I grew up with a living room that had a cathedral ceiling in one area, so we always maxed out the height of our tree.  One year we actually had one that was 14 feet tall...needed to nail the tree stand to the floor and have guide wires, but it was awesome.  In general though, our tree was about 10 feet.  As a result, I have fairly high expectations when it comes to the size of my tree...even for someone who has not had one her own yet!  With 20 foot ceilings in my apartment now....I wanted to go for height, but was somewhat realistic as I had to help carry this home and needed it to fit in the elevator!

So we went for the tallest they had...8 feet.  I was a little worried about the bottom because when it was wrapped up it looked a bit thin, but figured it should be all good.  In general, the tree looked nice and full and had a nice tippy top for a tree topper!  On Tuesday night, we brought it home set it up and resisted putting on the lights so that is could "fall" appropriately.  My mother always stressed the importance of allowing the tree to fall...it stuck with me, she must be proud!

Turns out the reason the tree looked a bit iffy on the bottom is because the majority of the tree is super full!  The tree is a bit shrub-like and totally started to encroach on the sofa...this is the first time I actually trimmed a tree, or else it was really going to take over the entire living room!  Even with a normal tree we would have had to shift furniture around, but with this one, we had to really rearrange and totally crowd one side of the apartment...but regardless, the tree turned out AMAZING.  It has tons of lights and ornaments. 

Lit up for all to see

Nick was very adamant about having white lights on the tree...no colored lights, he hates them.  Me, I love colored lights.  I grew up with the bigger bulbs in all sorts of colors that were mixed in with bubble lights (my absolute favorite!).  I think they make the tree so much more fun!  As a compromise, we decided that I would get to pick the tree topper....and he would get his white lights.  Right now we have a temporary topper on the tree...

Since I get the topper, I am going to make it the most fantastic, colorful, glittery, sparkly thing that could ever be used to top a tree.  My plan is to make it so amazingly tacky that I can convince him to put some bubble lights on the tree, and for every bubble light I can put on, I will take the gaudiness down a level.  But until then, I am on the search!

Finished Product!

The tree came together really well...but it was a good thing it was in a corner, because we did not have enough ornaments to do the whole tree!  We had just enough to cover what people would actually be seeing.  Regardless I am really happy with my first real tree.  Also, its only December 9, and there are already presents under the tree!  Definitely more fun that way...but really there is nowhere to hide presents in such a small place, so it forces the wrapping to be done early...I'll take it!