Picking out our Xmas Tree 2008

After Breakfast with Santa (which included only cookies and milk, not an actual meal. Don't ask) we headed to a bookstore and then out to lunch at Solid Gold McDonald's. It features a lot of rock n' roll memorabilia, sort of like a Hard Rock Cafe only with Mcnuggets on the menu.







That blurry top pic is of a Buddy Holly case in the restaurant. It features, among other things, an actual shirt worn by my favorite rocker.

After, a new tradition: post-Breakfast with Santa we go and pick out our tree. This was only the second time in my life I've had a real tree, and so we wanted a good one.

Yeah, two 'my bads' on this score: 1. everyone had been dressed for the Breakfast, not for galloping around outside in December 2. It was cold. Damn cold. 1 Degree (F) cold with a fierce wind. Yikes.

We still tried to put a brave face on things



But after the second unsuccessful stop LuLu and Lump were left in the car with my niece; Smiley could not be dissuaded from joining us.

The third stop was the charm, the same roadside stand where we'd purchased last years tree.







Surprisingly, it went into the tree stand plumb on the first try (to be then knocked this way and that by the Terrible Four, never again to stand perfect)









The decorating shots you see took place a day later, but YaYa wasn't home to do it. When she returned she was furious, bringing up alleged slights in each of the last two holiday seasons.



Finally I had enough of the moaning and groaning (she blogged about it for pete's sake!) and removed some items from the tree so that she could then return them to glory.







I am never happy with how Christmas trees turn out in photos, as I think they lean to garish or cluttered when reduced into a 4x6 and stripped of their context. But I think ours turned out pretty darn sweet.