Oh Christmas Tree!

We'd postponed getting a Christmas tree because we decided we really wanted a real one, but had heard from everyone, that here in Utah the trees dry out really fast.  So our two options were to wait a little longer to get one and risk all the good ones being taken, or buy a humidifier and hope that our tree would last out the month. We opted for the first.

So for FHE, after Kellan got home from work, we bundled up and hit the streets of Utah in search of some groceries, and the PERFECT Christmas tree.

We found some really tall scraggly ones that looked a bit like large versions of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree minus the single ornament. Turns out they were wild Christmas trees, and people actually want to buy those. But we chose a very fat, very full, domesticated Christmas tree.

Kellan, checking out our short and stout options. I love when he stands beside our tree because it makes it look even shorter and more adorable.

After selecting our tree, we decided to round out date night with a little ethnic food that Kellan only typically gets treated to after General Conference ... Mongolian BBQ.

I don't know if I've ever looked quite so Asian in all my life. The fact that my hair is a hot mess up in a bun is not helping matters either, but the food was yummy and checking out what the Chinese Zodiac has to say is always fun.

After dinner we headed home to decorate!

We'd picked up a metal tree stand from where we bought our tree and within ten minutes of trying to set everything up, we broke the stand. Thankfully it's still working well enough that our tree is standing, so that's all that really matters at this point.

After we got it standing, we got to decorating while watching Disney's Prep & Landing. So totally tinsel.

Kellan really likes that it matches our carpet almost perfectly and really cuts down on all the vacuuming up we have to do. We knew one day we'd find a use for this forest green carpet of ours!

We don't have a tree topper yet, so right at the top, we placed the Christmas ornament Momma Whitaker got us from Disneyland! You can't quite tell in this picture, but it says "Happily Ever After"

Then we took down our Fall garland from the banister, and put up our festive new Christmas garland!
And yes, right now those are baby pictures of us hanging in our Family frames. We'll change them out at some point.

And that was it!

Or so I thought. It was still looking a little bare and sad, so I had to "fix" it. We added Candy Canes and then I had the bright idea of adding a string of popcorn!

Kellan had bought a tin of popcorn and there's always that one flavor no one really likes. Well this year it was the Buttered Popcorn and I knew just what to do with it.

I've always thought popcorn strung up on a tree was so cute and nostalgic, but my family never has; so I figured, my own tree, my own rules! The very next day I set to work stringing that buttered popcorn thinking "How hard can it be?! It'll take me like two or three minutes, tops!" Right? Wrong!

I slaved over that popcorn for like twenty minutes and only got half of the length I wanted before I gave up and admitted defeat to those delicate kernels and knotted string.

I mean it looks okay, but definitely not worth all the fuss. Lesson learned! Popcorn is ONLY for movies.