Christmas of 2011 was our ninth Christmas living in New Mexico, but only the second time we actually spent the holiday in New Mexico (the first being 2008 when Adelaida was born). We have generally traveled to visit our families at Christmas, and therefore have never really decorated for Christmas and never had our own Christmas tree. This year, though, we decided to change that.
With three young kids -- two of whom were five months old -- traveling at Christmas time seemed like a lot of work. So, we invited Dale's family to visit us at Christmas and skipped the Christmas celebration with my family, since we had spent almost two weeks with them in September and are planning to visit them again in the spring or summer.
Since we would have six young kids in the house at Christmas, we decided we'd better have a Christmas tree! So, we set out to buy one, on December 23rd, in the middle of a blizzard ... and found that most local stores were sold out of Christmas trees and we wouldn't have it in time if we bought it online. With no other options available, I made one last attempt to buy a tree, and the Edgewood Walmart came through for me! It wasn't a tall tree, or particularly full or bushy, or fancy in any way, but we made it work.
We decorated it with silver sleigh bells and red glass balls, and with the lights already strung on the tree, it made our living room seem almost festive!
We put a few presents under the tree on Christmas morning and let Adelaida pass them out. It felt like a real Christmas celebration!
And the crowning achievement of the Christmas tree was that we got a family picture, with all five of us looking at the camera, in front of the decorated tree. Merry belated Christmas everyone!
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LOVE Adelaida's face!
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