Our Christmas Story

Last weekend, we set out to look for a Christmas tree.  We were going to pick one and chop it down ourselves, and I was really excited because I've never had a live tree.  (When I say "we" were going to chop it down, I mean Andy was going to chop it down.  And I was going to happily watch.)  Well, we couldn't get a tree because it was Sunday.  Das ist Deutschland, nothing is open on Sundays.  So we quickly detoured to the PX (which is, because it's American owned, open on Sundays), thinking that we would get at least a fake tree to put up.  The PX had been sold out of trees since the day after Thanksgiving!  I quickly decided that I was going to make a tree.  Pretty crazy idea since I'm not at all creative, and not very artistic either.  We started to look for construction paper, which the PX also didn't have.  We never give up, we found green poster board! 

When we got home, Evan and I started working on the tree.  I drew the shape, and at the bottom of the top and middle layers, I traced Evan's hands to make a cute design for the "frilly" parts of the tree.  While we worked on the tree, Andy started making paper ornaments, snowflakes, and even gifts. 

We were pretty proud of the finished product!  It looked cute, it was fun, and most importantly, we did it together.  When our neighbors came over to take this picture, we were talking about still getting a tree.  Andy made the point though, that this tree takes up no space and it's pretty cool, so maybe we wouldn't get a real tree this year.  He also mentioned that he may have accidentally left all of our Christmas tree lights at a holiday party for his unit last year. 

Although we were happy with our project tree, it is part of the fun for little ones to put up and decorate a tree.  And I really had my heart set on a real tree.  Well last night someone rang our doorbell.  Andy went outside, but there was no one there.  But there was a tree, tree stand, lights, and a card.  The inside of the card said, "I was all alone this holiday season.  I needed a family to share my Christmas spirit with, so I found the Bartletts and I hope they take me in this cold Christmas season to share the magic of the season with me."

Our wonderful friends had gone out and gotten us a tree!  They just hated the thought that we wouldn't have a tree to decorate with Evan.  It was the sweetest gift!  We were so surprised.  We put up the tree last night and let it thaw a little (it's been quite cold and snowy this winter).  When Evan got home from school today, he was literally jumping up and down saying, "Can we put the lights on the tree? Can we put the lights on the tree?" 

We did put the lights on the tree.  And all of our fun ornaments.  And guess who got to put the star on top.

The tree looked beautiful when it was all finished!  You can also see the snow outside the window, which looks pretty cool.

It is our first German Christmas tree, and the perfect gift.  Thank you, friends!