O Christmas Tree

Every year, Christmas brings so much joy and excitement as we celebrate the coming of our Christ.  While I try to stay focused on the true meaning of Christmas, I always tend to get at least a little caught up in the pomp and circumstance too.  I mean, who doesn't?  I especially love the way my house looks when it is full of holiday décor.  The wreath on the door, garland on the stairs, and trees filled with ornaments adorn my home.  With the construction going on in our basement this year, we had to tone down the decorations a bit.  We didn't put the tree in the bay window in the office like we normally do, because the office is filled with Legos that normally live in the basement.  I don't have any wrapped gifts under the tree yet, because my wrapping paper is all out in the garage, and so are the gifts we've been buying because I have nowhere else to put them. 

Despite the scaling down we've done, there is one thing that we did bigger and better than ever before...the real tree in the living room.  We haven't always measured the tree.  We know it's big and guesstimate based on the size of the living room, the size of the ladder we use to decorate, etc.  Despite the lack of actual measurements, there is no doubt that this is the biggest tree we've ever gotten.  I even went back through pictures of our previous tress to make sure.  Here's what I found.

2013 was the first year we celebrated Christmas in this house (technically we bought it on December 17, 2012, but we didn't move in until after Christmas that year.  The tree that year was by the windows in the living room, and you can clearly see that it only goes to the top of the square window.

In 2014, we moved the TV from the right side of the fireplace to the left, so the 2014 tree was on the opposite side of the fireplace from the 2013 tree.  While the large wall of windows isn't comparable in the pictures, the windows above the fireplace are.  The 2014 tree looks to be about the same size as the 2013 tree, with just a couple of extra inches at the top. 

The 2015 tree looks a little taller that even 2014, even though it also looks to be slightly narrower. It seems that we just inched our way slightly taller year by year, until now. 

This year, you can see that the tree clearly goes above the top of the rounded window in the middle.  That is at least 3 more feet than the 2013 tree.  The best part of doing a real tree this year and every year is the smell.  Our house definitely smells like Christmas!