We got our real tree from the tree mecca featured in all Hallmark movies- Home Depot. It was hanging up like a ham at the butcher and didn’t look like it had much potential, but after several shakes, taps, and sniffs I deemed it worthy of our home. Even after all these years, Christopher does not remember my multi-step tree picking process. “Sure, that one looks good. That one is nice too. Whatever you want. Why are you taping it against the ground? What do you mean, the branches will settle?” AB was running laps around the garden center and would have agreed to a pansy as an appropriate tree.

All the morning shows and the BBC have been on me about announcing the 2022 theme tree. Here it is in all its slightly scraggly glory. It is a book tree. It’s in my top three favorite theme trees. I was going to do only books we had read this year, but that would have required a great deal of effort, so it’s a combination of books we read this year and favorite books. We discussed making a library card topper and AB suggested a topper that said “shhh” but there again, time was not on our side. 

Everyone who was within a 150-mile radius of the stable is represented in our nativity scene. Jesus is the size of a middle schooler. He came out the size of his mother.I made the nativity sign at work and we made the wooden houses last year. I was trying to create a little town of Bethlehem.