Charlie Brown Christmas tree

Growing up, one of our Christmas time traditions was to cut down our own tree.  Needless to say, every year we'd have a barren, Charlie Brown christmas tree.  To add to our tree's pathetic appearnace, every year my sister Kyra insisted that her kindergarten-made ornament be hung front and center.  (Her christmas ornament was a paper plate painted purple, hole punched one the outside with green yarn laced through, and an orange & purple ceramic monkey pasted in the center of the plate).   The tree's branches would bend with the load of the ceramic monkey decor.  I vowed that I would never have a Charlie Brown tree or tacky ornaments when I had a home of my own.

Well, it's my first Christmas with Chad and guess what we did for a Christmas tree this year...yep, we cut down a tree ourselves.  So much for my previous vows.  But it gets better, it's not even a real pine-  it's a cedar tree. What can I say? The pickings were slim on my parents property.

The tree...

The chainsaw (and my dad's backside)...



The haul...



Chad with his kill (a 10 point christmas tree he called it)...



The happy couple...



My brilliant idea to begin a tradition of making our own ornaments every year. We both agreed that this might be the only year that glitter will be used (especially since this will be our last child-free Christmas).

Some of our homemade ornaments (prettier than a ceramic monkey pasted to a paper plate, right?)...

Me trying to hang ribbon on our tree. Chad said it looked more like a toilet papering job...I agreed. We made the ribbon into some of the above ornaments instead. :)



The final result. Next year we will buy an artificial tree.

Michelle loves Chad!

I love my husband. I realize that I've only been married for about a year and I could be accused of still being in the honeymoon stage, but why is it that my love for him continues to grow? The increase has been nothing dramatic. Like nature, it grows ever so slowly everyday. Everyday a little more deeply rooted. Everyday gently sprouting. I'm grateful for him and the increased happiness I find with him. He wrote me a poem the other day-

Seasons

Our love tumbles and crashes, opening and closing, and sometimes gasps rhythmically out of the water, drying and parching away from where it was born.
And then we crash together again, and her kisses raise the crushed blades of grass and bring the green back to the brown. We rotate like dancers, closer then farther, rekindling, reawakening and falling asleep.
Sometimes when we swing so far away I cannot feel her hand in my hand. I started to panic, that she had turned away. I close my open hand, around hers. Still there.
Standing in one place, once taken for granted, now so difficult to be the stable one. Two planets we revolve around each other, pulling with our gravity, unstabilizing each other with our love and our pushing. I thought she would define my substance, but she defines my space. I thought she would slake my thirst, but she became my seasons. I thought she would give only life, but now she guides me in death and resurrection. I thought love would be my center, but it is my matrix, and my favorite color.

He's definately more romantic and poetic than me. In fact, he had to explain parts of this poem for me...I'll let you try to figure it out for yourself though :)

It's set in stone...

...well, maybe not stone, but at least block. We finally decided on name- Liam Seth Guerra. Hopefully he looks like a Liam to us when he's born because I've already started making things with his name on it. Below are some blocks and other things that I've made for his room.