Christmas Trees and Christmas Bells

This year we were at my parents house for Thanksgiving and as is tradition we went to get a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Jeff and I decided that we would pick out our Christmas tree too and just bring it back to Wisconsin with us. Ummm. Dumb idea. First of all the tree sat on top of our car for three days, which as a side note made our van really easy to spot in a parking lot, secondly it made us get horrible gas mileage. On the way down to Nebraska we stopped for gas one time on the way up we had to stop twice.
Anyway it is a great tree and hopefully it will last until Christmas.

The tree we picked was pretty much the very first
tree that we saw. Good thing too because it was
really, really cold. 

I am pretty sure that I have a picture just like this for
every Christmas that Jeff and I have been married.

Lauren and Sofia wheeling in the goods.

Our tree making the journey home. 

I could not get these girl to smile normal. They really did all the
decorating down at the bottom. I have only moved a couple
of things. I guess that practice run on Grandma's tree got
them seasoned and ready for our tree.  

Yesterday our little family rang bells for the Salvation Army. We were at our local grocery store and when I was signing us up on the internet it said that singing was highly encouraged. I kind of put off practicing any Christmas songs with the girls until Saturday morning where I then realized that the know only three Christmas songs. Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls (thanks to Barbie: A Perfect Christmas), and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. We were scheduled to ring bells for one hour. And singing those three songs over and over was a bit monotonous and the girls got pretty tired of standing and singing, but they did great and I think really enjoyed it.

The girls rocking out to "Jingle Bells" they were a real hit
with the older ladies. 

Callum really enjoyed biting the bell more than ringing it.