Jef’s family always cuts down their own tree at Christmas - I LOVE this tradition. We had to go about an hour outside Austin to get ours this year (Loma Alta Christmas Tree Farm in Bastrop), but it was well worth it. Lucy got to go too, but other than trying to eat every pine cone in the entire place, she wasn’t much help. The tree we took home was a little “special” - it has two tips (we need to get an extra star) and isn’t really shaped well. But we’d been walking around forever, and it was going to get dark soon and this one just spoke to us. Also, we lost the one we first liked (”Let’s keep looking. If we don’t find anything else, we’ll come back to this one. It wont be hard to find this tree again in a TREE FARM.”)

As for the decorating, I only have two ornaments, but Jef’s mom bought an ornament for him and his sister every Christmas when they were growing up - another wonderful tradition. He got a car ornament the year he turned 16, a keg ornament the year he turned 21, various sports ones for years he ran track or went to a special professional game, etc.. His mom gave them their ornaments when they moved out, so they not only have enough ornaments to decorate a tree, they also have an evening’s worth of stories to share in the process.

It’s sad not spending Christmas in New England, I am homesick for my family. But it will also be nice to experience a cozy, quiet, Austin-y holiday. It was just so expensive this year, and there are things in the works that will cost a lot of money in 2006, so the head realizes it is better to sacrifice this bit of expensive holiday travel so we can have those things sooner.

I’m also officially in the Christmas spirit, which is good, because I have a lot of shopping to do.