Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Ugly Christmas Tree 2022

Most of you know about our family Christmas tradition of picking out the ugliest tree we can find. This year marked a decade since we started the tradition- so I made us shirts to commemorate the event. 

We decided to go on a Friday, but Asa and I had errands to run after work first. We swung by MOD for some pizza, and then over to Costco. My lord, I must love this guy to let him stack things like this at the self-checkout. It makes my brain all scrambled. WHY!? (He was actually doing so well until he got to the eggs). 


After our errands, we collected the kids and headed up to Dade City to go to our favorite Christmas Tree Farm, Lazy Lay Acres. There weren't too many bad trees this year, but when I saw this one, I knew. The kids all told me it wasn't even a tree, it was a bush, and they probably wouldn't even sell it to us. But, I'd been lobbying for a bush like tree for years. 


So we hung out by the tree, while Asa went up to the front to see if we could get it. The workers had actually been told to look out for a family looking for an ugly tree (we're basically famous at Lazy Lay Acres). 


Asa came back with a saw, giving us the thumbs up. The tree was coming home with us! 


It took all of two seconds to cut the thing down.. 


and it was real easy to carry up to the front. 


While the lovely staff tried to figure out if they could shake it, wrap it, or drill the hole up the middle for the special stand they have... 


we went in to the petting farm to pet the animals. Peyton got a chicken to sit for her. 


I tried not to bother them too much because there had just been some kids picking them up, making the chickens cluck and the pigs squeel, and I thought they could use some downtime. But they were SO cute. 


Once our tree was tied to the roof, they insisted on taking our picture with the Tree, and then having us post it to their facebook page. The owner swung by and told us we got a real good (aka bad) one this year. Perhaps the best (worst) yet! I totally agree. 


Drilling the hole did in fact, not work. Calib told me all the things he thought could go wrong with the tree, and said it was like a puppy. I picked it, so I was responsible for it. I told him he needed a better can-do attitude. After all, it was nothing I couldn't fix with some duct tape and rocks. 


However, I was totally out of lights after using them all outside. Luckily, Vince and Alicia were happy to donate a red, green and white strand to our cause. 


We hung a few ornaments together, and everyone was like 'that's all it can hold!' but I insisted I could get more on the tree, so then they all watched me pull out ornament after ornament making noises everytime the tree swayed like I was playing jenga or something. I did come in at 25 ornaments though! And they've all stayed up. 


It's my firm belief any tree can be a Christmas tree. And this one is just further proof. I did say maybe we don't have to keep going to Lazy Lay Acres, and we could just head to the woods around here and chop down some random plant. 

A Sattler family tradition is to have Chinese food the night you get the tree. My grandma altered it at her house to get Chinese and Pizza when we put up her tree to make everyone happy. We've stuck with the grandma tradition, especially since we moved here, and the pizza and the chinese place are at the end of the subdivision. 


It wasn't just get the tree day though, it was also our Ettaversary! Five years have passed since Etta has come to live with us. She's such a sweet basket case, and we love her so much. 


So of course, we celebrated with the usual pupcakes. 


Etta gets her favorite kind of "sprinkles": Cheese! 


It took a bit to get a good picture of her. This is the best I could do. 


Everyone chowed down on their pupcakes. 


But Ellie, who had not been feeling well, didn't even get off the couch for hers. Her face had blown up and was super puffy and we were awaiting a vet visit. (Spoiler alert: she turned out fine, but has a ton of medicines for a double ear infection among other things). 


Etta did go in for seconds, too. 


That's another blog down. Trying to get caught up in the void that is the week between Christmas and New Years. 

Next up: the Christmas blanket fort & grandma comes to visit! 

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