The Bowers's First Christmas

I have been waiting for this day; the day we get to go to a Christmas tree farm, find a tree, and decorate. One of my family's traditions is going to the Christmas tree farm the day after Thanksgiving, seeing Grandma and Grandpa there, and then decorating all day while we watch the Nebraska game. Well, last January, before Nate and I were even engaged, I told him that I was going to have a real tree next year, no matter what. And I have been anticipating this day ever since :).

Nate and I started the morning by preparing for the tree and moving tables, vacuuming, and getting the tree stand ready. We then headed out on a VERY blustery day. 

Heading out to the Christmas tree farm

We went to a little farm just east of Hastings, NE. This farm grows a couple different Christmas trees and then ships in Fraser and Douglas Firs from Michigan. We looked around at the home grown trees first, but settled on a Fraser Fir. I like trees with short needles, and that are tall and skinny, and are preferably not so thick that you can't see the bark.

Out looking at trees

Nate in front of the Fraser Firs

They had some very helpful high school boys who put the tree
on top of the Xterra for us

Just getting the tree in, with Cheddar already checking things out

Success!

Nate's family has a tradition of eating finger foods while putting up the Christmas tree. Well, I have no problem with eating, and I love snack foods. So after we got the tree up, we ran to Hy-Vee to pick up some food (with the hopes of Cheddar not destroying the tree while we were gone).

Loved our snack food - I think this tradition is a keeper!

Over the years, my Grandma Wheeler has been sending me ornaments as part of my Christmas gift. Now that I can have my own real tree, all those ornaments sure come in handy, and it's so much fun opening each individual ornament!

The finished tree!

I also had to decorate the mantle :)

The wreath came from the Christmas tree farm. On the mantle we just put boughs from under the tree that we had to cut off, and added sparkly pine cones and red berries. 

Cheddar was exhausted after all the hustle & bustle

I will now add a few pictures of the ornaments that are on our tree.

We picked up this ornament today at Hobby Lobby - everything was 50% off!

One of our favorite wedding gifts

A glass ornament from the Sandwhich Glass Museum in Sandwhich, Cape Cod

Nate's favorite ornament on the tree

Nate put lights up outside

Now on another note, pictured below is my Christmas cactus. I have had this plant for a number of years with it never blooming. All of a sudden, today, I noticed that it had 3 blooms on it!! Wow, Nate and I thought it was dying.