Day after Thanksgiving

It is a tradition in the Corley family to go find our Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. My parents have been doing this since before I was born! We meet another family at Bojangles for an early breakfast and then we drive up the road to a Christmas tree farm. We then spend an hour or two perusing the different trees, trying to find the perfect one. My parents used to get a tall (10+ feet tall) leyland cypress, but now that they are in their new house, they have opted for a Frasier fir or Noble fir. The weather seems to be different every year- some years it is warm, and other years it is extremely cold. This year it wasn't too chilly, but it was definitely wet! Lots of rain fell the whole time we were looking at trees, but of course the rain stopped as soon as all the trees had been cut and loaded into the trucks.

Unfortunately, Matt and I did not buy a live tree. We have used an artificial tree for the past 3 years, mainly because of these two critters.....

They look so innocent, don't they?

On our first Christmas together, we left Arden (who was still a puppy at this point) inside our house while we went to my parents' house because it was raining outside. When we came back, our 8 foot live tree was on our couch. Yep. On the couch. Some of the ornaments were broken and the water from the tree stand had "flooded" the carpet. And all the presents under the tree? That's right- they were soaking wet. We were able to salvage most of the gifts, but it sure was a mess! So this is why we switched to a fake tree.

Fast forward 3 years....  Hobbes (at that point, a little kitten) decides his favorite thing to do is CLIMB up our Christmas tree! Oh dear.... one day we'll be able to have a real tree again!

(Do you see Hobbes?)

-Erin :)