it's christmas time at the gootes

oh Christmas tree...

This is Elise's thing lately.  She says, "do you want to hear a song I know?"  We say sure!  So she sings and sings about everything and everybody that she loves until she says "the end!".  Here she's pretty excited to be going to get a Christmas tree.  Sorry for the phone video...

We went to this adorable tree farm right by our house with a saw in hand.  And Grandpa & Grandma Goote.  And Uncle Adam & Auntie Sarah.  And Ollie the dog. It was quite the parade.  

We probably walked two miles around these giant Christmas tree fields - and found nothing.  All the trees were too short, bushy, and weird looking.  We kind of gave up and took a picture next to this shrimpy tree - ya know, to prove to our kid someday we love her and wanted her to experience a Christmas tree cutting experience - fully expecting to drive to Home Depot and pick up a tree there. 

We even took a picture of Nick cutting down his parent's tree and figured we pass it off as our own.  Because Home Depot pictures aren't as Christmas-y.  It's kind of like cheating.  But I have to admit we got pretty awesome trees there before we had Elise.  Much easier. 

But then! We took a last minute walk through the pre-cut trees right by the entrance.  And it spoke to me.  Our tree!   (Of course they had all the best trees pre-cut by the entrance. Duh Rach.)

So here's a picture of us by our real tree.  A non-shrimpy, regular shaped tree. 

I had a lot of help decorating with "or-ma-nents" that I had to fix a little after my little helper went to bed.  But it looks SO pretty.  This morning Elise came downstairs and said "mommy!  our tree is sooooo beee-utiful!"