O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

I have now lived in Arizona for over half my life and I absolutely LOVE the fact that we have warm winters and I actually don't mind the blistering heat in the summer as well. In fact I practically feel like a native.

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Some of the things I definitely do NOT miss include:

*Halloweens where you put on your pretty costume, only to have to cover it up with your winter coat to the point that no one knows what you actually dressed up as*

*Those bitterly cold days when you just feel cold and WET all over*

*Tracking snow and mud on the floors when you come inside*

*Only being able to wear flip flops and shorts in the summertime*

*Scary car rides with black ice on the roads*

*Shoveling snow from the roads and the driveway almost every day*

*Daily bad hair days due to hat hair and rain/snow*

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As the winter season approaches and the Holidays have begun to set in, I tend to reflect back on my childhood memories. Even though I LOVE Arizona weather, there are definitely some things I miss about living in a state with a real winter. Some of these include: cancelled school due being snowed in~ which turned into sledding days with all the neighbor kids down our steep street we lived on, making snowmen, pulling the icicles off the roof and eating them on the back patio, fun playtime in the snow followed by steamy cups of hot cocoa, cuddling next to the fireplace with blankets and reading stories together, the first snow storm of the season, and most of all the magical feeling that a WHITE Christmas brings. Another favorite of mine growing up in Utah was the annual trek to the Christmas tree lot to pick "the perfect" tree for our house. I loved to walk through all the trees, examining each, and inhaling that fresh pine scent. Then we would attach it to the car and drive back home, singing Christmas carols together. It always seemed like the Holidays were magical at my house.

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When we moved to Arizona we tried out real trees for a few years, but gradually my parents switched over to fake trees after several years of burn marks on our tree as we were taking the Christmas tree down. One of the wonderful parts about marrying into the Toronto family was the reinstatement of having a real Christmas tree. Jesse's parents head up North and cut down their own tree and haul it back to Mesa each Xmas season, & so after we were married that was one thing he definitely wanted to continue (have a real tree each year).

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Now we don't cut down our own tree at the moment, but we still love to go to "our" Christmas tree lot and pick out a tree each year. My kids are happily settling into this tradition and get excited each year for this special night. I had a fairly large break from work this past week and so we made a trip of it on Wednesday evening after dinner. Miss M and Mr R loved running around the lot and looking at all the different sizes of trees. Robby wanted us to get the "liddle-est one" and Maddie kept showing us the "biggest biggest trees". We have gone to the same lot for the past few years to pick out our tree and we always enjoy the free hot cocoa and candy canes provided. As were loading up our tree Robby found this truck that he loved pretending to drive. We had to fight to get him off of it once it was time to go.

E, Mommy, & Miss M

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Once we got home, we set up the tree immediately and pulled out all of our old school christmas ornaments. I long for the day when I can have my own "pretty tree" with fancy color coordinated ornaments and beautiful bows trimming the branches. Until then I will settle for our "kid-friendly" decorations. My kids love looking through each ornament and selecting the perfect spot for each one. It has been so much fun this year to have my little ones excited about helping with this project (although I do have to admit that our little E went to bed promptly after the Christmas tree pick up so we could decorate without his help :)

A picture of the finished project