Duck-erating our Tree

First, I want to give a shout out to Penny Lane Designs for my lovely new blog design. I was so ready for a change, and I love my new look!

I'm a week late in posting this, but I have some pictures of our first married Christmas tree that I wanted to share. Last Saturday, J and I got up and did what any Austonian would do on an 80 degree day in December-- put on our sunglasses and flip flops and headed out to get our tree. (I should have taken a picture of our outfits just to remember it!) We went to a lot, but were impressed with the number, size, and quality of the trees. I'm gonna go ahead and say it... having been raised in Washington and Oregon respectively, J and I have pretty high standards for what constitutes a Christmas tree. In fact, the act of going to a lot-- instead of going out to a farm in the woods and cutting down our own tree-- seemed highly suspect. But since the closest cut-down-your-own-tree farm was halfway to Houston, and since we had a very important game to watch that afternoon, the lot worked out just fine.

We selected a delicious smelling fir tree from North Carolina. Since we live in an apartment, and are going to be spending about 10 days in Seattle over the holidays, we opted for a smaller, more manageable 5 foot tree that would be easy to put up, easy to take down... and easy to stuff in my Jetta. That's another picture I wish would have taken!

After stopping at Target for some lights and garlands, and then at a local taqueria to fortify ourselves with a few tacos al pastor and some Mexican Coke (have you had that stuff?? addictive!), we headed home to... "Duck-erate" our tree. That is-- to decorate our tree while watching the Oregon Ducks trounce the Oregon State Beavers to lock up their number 2 BCS ranking and earn their (first ever!) trip to the National Championships. Obviously I've been a little, um, "preoccupied" throughout the fall-- otherwise I would have written more about their amazing season. But we're all very excited and will definitely be tuning in on January 10th to watch them play Auburn for the championship.

So here are a few pictures of our first married Christmas tree. The past two years we've been travelling so we opted not to do full out Christmas decorations in the past, but I'm glad we did this year. It's so festive and smells awesome!

The full tree!

J's favorite ornament-- a Hawaiian shirt

Our tree topper-- a repurposed angel ornament. And, yes, that is a UT Bevo figurine in the background. Apparently J thought my mantle needed a little something extra.

And, finally, our stockings and mantle!