Those of you who read this blog regularly know I love Christmas trees. I have written extensively about the past two trees (2016 and 2017) that Sid and I welcomed into our home. Well, I am about to write about the third, but this year there is a major change…

We got a fake tree!!

Sid (and Sloan) taking our fake tree out of the box.

I resisted an artificial tree for a long time but we finally “went fake” on Thanksgiving weekend. Sid got a screaming deal at Lowe’s so we purchased a tree that will hopefully be around for many Christmases to come. I will miss the unbeatable pine smell and uniqueness of the real thing, but I look forward to the convenience and cost savings of the artificial tree.

Sloan and I in front of our new artificial tree.

Want to know someone who doesn’t care one way or the other?

SLOAN!

Our beautiful tree!

It doesn’t matter if the tree was cut down in our backyard or pulled out from a box, as long as Sloan has branches to hang pretty ornaments on, she is happier than Santa Claus with cookies.

Sloan loves hanging ornaments from the tree.

Sidney said it was like Sloan was “on crack” when we started to decorate the tree. I gave her an ornament to hang and the second she completed the task she was crying out for another ornament and excitedly clasping her hands together to express the word “more” in sign language. It went on like this one ornament after the other. After the tree was fully decorated and there was nothing left to hang, she didn’t give up. She went right up to the fake evergreen and started ripping off ornaments so she could put them back on the tree. Never mind that some of them are glass and others carry sentimental value, our daughter needs her Yuletide fix.

Sloan helped her mama decorate the tree.

It has gone on like this for two days. A few ornaments, including a #CCU decoration and a really cool snowman piece, have met their demise. Evidenced by some bare spots on the bottom of the tree, several additional ornaments are now missing around the house. By the time Christmas arrives, we expect that the casualty count will be high.

He lived a good life…

But it is all in good fun. I can spare a few ornaments if it means that Sloan is enjoying the tree and experiencing a little bit of Christmas magic. The tree might be fake, but those special ornaments hanging on the branches still carry the story of our family and that is about as real as it gets. Don’t Blink.