The Tree is Trimmed!

We only had two more days left of our Fall Break from language school, so Ian and I decided to sleep in, take an easy morning, and put up our tree a little early this year.

Now, if you remember (or have been around Far More Than Rubies for a little bit,) you know that Ian and I have been married now for almost 2 and a half years. Our first Christmas, in 2008, was spent with our families in our hometown, but we did have our own tree in our apartment in Gainesville. It was fresh, had beautiful ornaments, and I decorated as much as our newlywed budget would allow (which wasn't much.)

Our second Christmas, last year, 2009, was spent up in Nashville, TN, where my parents had moved, and where we had been living with them for five months due to unemployment and other circumstances. We had a fresh tree and it was a beautiful Tennessee Christmas. Right after Christmas, my mom and I bought an amazing artificial tree on clearance to take with us to the Middle East.

That thing was a monster. Is a monster. It's huge.

But, we don't have it. Our tree and all of our ornaments, including heirloom pieces, are packed away in our storage crate in Florida.

Our company has a policy not to be the exorbitant amount of money it costs to ship your stuff until after your finish language school and prove that you are going to stick around for awhile. That's not such a bad thing when you're learning Spanish, French, or Italian. Six months and you have your house together again.

Alas, we had to go and pick the hardest language class available and we won't see one single item until (probably) the fall of 2012. Whoa.

So, once we got all settled into our apartment and I could sto9p thinking about space in suitcases and luggage weight allowances, I began picking up Christmas items in stores here, like in an Ace Value and Ikea. Crate and Barrel and Pottery Barn also pitched in.

So, sweet husband, despite his lack of tradition loving roots, which I have deep and strong ties to any and all forms of traditions, pitched on in and spent the afternoon putting together our tree (that was 25 dollars!) and helping me strategically decorate it!

This tree will be with us this Christmas and next as our only tree, but hopefully in 2012 we'll have our big ol' beauty. Then maybe the small tree will be used as the kid tree or a theme tree!

Isn't he the best?
And the cutest!
Those dimples get me every time.
We had a great afternoon of decorating, singing along to Christmas songs, and grinning like crazy. Except only I was doing the grinning, because busting with excitement and grinning are terms not found in husband's vocabulary. He does a more slow and subtle type of show of excitement.

Our tree is up and decorated and looking beautiful! It's not the biggest, or the fanciest, but it makes my heart swell with love and memories. And if the song is true, Christmas is All in the Heart, and that's all that matters, right?

Also, I apparently didn't take a finished product picture. That will be coming. Along with the rest of our holiday decorations after Thanksgiving is over. I needed that tree up now, to kind of help me cope through the holidays right now, but I didn't want to get rid of all of my fall decorations until after Thanksgiving!

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The Tree is Trimmed!