It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas

It's true, it took 35 years for me to finally have a real Christmas tree. You see, I didn't grow up religious. When I asked my dad if we were Christian or Jewish (the 2 most common religions in the northern suburbs of Chicago), he said "Neither. We're not very religious, but if anything, I guess we are Buddhists." Since it wasn't among the popular topics at school, I chose not to mention it. And I wondered if Buddhists could celebrate Christmas too. Somewhere along the line my parents succumbed to my pleadings for a celebrating the holiday in some way and getting a tree. So my dad picked up a fake one and that was that. We decorated it nearly every year and strung lights around the house. It was fun and festive. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when JC surprised us with the rental and delivery of 4 REAL Christmas trees from Living Christmas. Yes, he ordered our Christmas trees online and they were delivered and placed where he instructed them to do so. In fact, here is part of the emails he received after he placed the order:

Dear JC, Your Living Christmas Tree will be arriving on Saturday, November 30th between approximately 10:17am - 1:17pm. Our reindeer will do our best to arrive within our estimated time of arrival, but please note that sometimes our reindeer experience delays or are quicker than we anticipated (therefore we can't guarantee our arrival times). Please help our delivery elves by making sure your drop-off point is easily accessible or that you are home to receive your tree in person (unless you noted when placing your order that it is 'OK to leave on porch').

I love their eco-friendly concept for Californians. Especially ones like us with a newborn baby and not nearly enough energy to do any of the things JC's parents used to do - drive to a lot, choose a tree, have it tied to the roof of their station wagon (I'm making this car up - I am not sure what they actually drove), drive home, remove tree from the roof and bring it inside to be put into the tree stand. So yeah, Living Christmas was a perfect choice for us. And they even brought us a 5th little tree as a thank you gift. We have this one along with a slightly larger one inside, and the largest one in the backyard. I'll try and get more photos of our trees, but for now, here is what our front porch looks like.