Gearing up for Christmas!

My kids got up this morning with the hopes that there would be snow on the ground but all we had was a little bit on the bushes and the roof. I tried to prepare Reese last night for the disappointment that is Texas weather. She is our Christmas girl. Always bright-eyed and in wonderment about all that is Christmas. When it began to snow last night, she exclaimed, "Its a miracle!". It was quite amusing. I can't wait to go to New Mexico after Christmas so that she can see REAL snow! She is also the only one willing to put in the hours to decorate the enormous tree that they picked out. We decided to go with a real tree this year despite allergies. So, we went to Denison to a tree farm where you pick your own and cut it down. The kids loved it. Well, after Ross got over the tragedy of cutting down a living tree. I had to explain to him that they do, in fact, plant one to replace it. He is such the environmentalist. At the tree farm, we take a hayride out to where all the trees are planted. There are trees ranging from Charlie Brown size up to 20 feet or more. We wanted somewhere in the middle. The kids picked one out and we thought it was a good size. I mean, it looked tiny compared to some of the other trees and we would be cutting some of the height off right? We all helped in cutting it down. (i.e. Bart cut it and we scraped at the bark) They put the net around it and tied it down for us. We were so proud of our tree. Reese was beside herself. It smelled like Christmas. It smelled like childhood. We get home and start dragging it inside. I'm like, um Bart, I think its a little bigger than we anticipated. Keep in mind that it still has the net on it at this point. We drag it into the office and place it in the stand. It is now dragging the ceiling. I decide I will cut some off the top. Then we start cutting the net off. Yeah. I don't know how we made it out of the office. If Ross wants on the computer, he has to hike through the forest of tree to get to his desk. I actually cut some of the branches to make a path and brought out the ladder to aid in the decorating. I was searching for the epipen by the time Reese and I completed our project. She kept asking me what was wrong and I didn't have the heart to tell her the tree was slowly killing me, while I gasp for a breath. It was huge and it definitely overpowers our little office, but it is the most beautiful tree anyone has ever picked out. I just don't want to think about how in the world we will get it OUT of our house.