Christmas decorating

Today we went to the Greenwood Tree Farm to pick out our Christmas tree. We picked out our tree last year from a flower stand on 3A, and the tree didn't last long, dropping its needles everywhere, and drying out too fast. So we thought it would be fun this year to go to our local tree farm. They have several fields of trees which they rotate each year. Their trees generally grow for 5-6 years. You grab a saw and go out, pick your tree, chop it down, and bring it to your car! Plus they had a neat little farm stand with apple cider, farm-made honey, and a variety of Christmas wreaths and centerpieces for sale. We picked our tree and a nice small wreath. The farm was really neat, it's on a huge piece of property along Dudley Road, which spread back near the Concord River and the famous historical "Two Brother's Rocks", which served as landmarks in the 17th century for John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley when they marked the boundaries of their properties.

We set up the tree, then grabbed lunch at the Border Cafe, for a Mexican Christmas fiesta.

Then we had fun pulling out all the ornaments and decorating the tree. Our ornament collection is filled with a fun collection of old and new.

Here's Mary's tooth-brushing Santa from 1985:


Here's Matt's teddy bear glass ornament from the 1980s:


We also received several "Our first Christmas" ornaments for our engagement in '05 and our wedding in '06. Last year we bought a variety of bulbs and other ornaments to fill out the tree. This year, I bought Matt two Hallmark ornaments from Pixar's Cars and Ratatouille.

Here's our Hilton Head Lighthouse from our honeymoon:


And here are some of our kitchen decorations: