Sunday, Dec. 18

Tonight we put up our now traditional Christmas branch. A few years ago my mom got sick of the mess of having a Christmas tree and she decided that having a branch could be just as pretty. Now, most of you are probably picturing a very sad Charlie Brown Christmas tree, I promise, it's not as sad as that. We always find a pretty sizeable branch, with lots of smaller branches coming off of it so that we hang ornaments. Half the fun of having this branch, is the hunt to to find it. Today we adventured off to walk along the river and hunted away. Minnesota has been oddly lacking snow, so traipsing through the woods was a little easier, but it's still not easy feat to pick through leaves and dead trees in an attempt to find some sort of just-the-right-size, pretty, yet dead, fallen branch. After an hour long walk along the river, we were finally successful, but it also means we had to walk all the way back home with this branch. There was nothing normal about the situation! We got a LOT of very odd stares as we walked along. I guess it's not everyday that you see people carrying a gigantic branch with them. After dinner we actually decorated tree, blue lights this year, with a minimal amount of ornaments. I've got to say, overall, I'm very pleased with it. What makes me most happy though, it all of the laughter and fun that was had while both finding the tree and putting it up. Man oh man, my family is great.