Christmas revelation

Ok. I just realized that the boys' memories of putting up the Christmas tree are going to be quite a bit different than my childhood memories. The search for the perfect Christmas tree always began the day after Thanksgiving. I remember going out well-bundled in the cold to Matthes tree farm. We would walk through rows and rows of trees in search of a lovely pine...and also had to find at least one good Charlie Brown tree to comment on. My stepdad would get down on his stomach and start sawing it down. I remember one year when he let my little brother have a go with the saw. After it came down, we would trudge to the big barn for hot apple cider and popcorn and listen to a barbershop choir sing some Christmas songs. Then we would head home and turn on the Christmas tunes and make some hot chocolate to warm us up before we started decorating.
When the boys came home from school today I asked if they wanted to get out the Christmas stuff. After a resounding YES!, we headed out to the storage room to drag in a few boxes and a big tree box. The boys jumped up and down as I tore the tape off the tree box. They pulled the artificial limbs out and sorted the ends by color then we got into 'assembling' the tree...and then adding ornaments.
It's not exactly the same atmosphere but they are still 'over the top' excited about it. It's Christmas after all! And there's something magical about that.

Off to put on the kettle to make some hot chocolate for these guys...gotta keep making memories!