O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

Last night I drove home expecting a quiet evening with my husband. When I arrived, he had prepared a gourmet meal of hamburger helper for dinner. We grabbed our food and went to sit in the living room to eat as we always do, since our kitchen table is in a constant state of disarray. After watching the 5 o'clock news, I turned and asked Jared what he wanted to do that evening. He casually relpied that he didn't know. We cleared all the dishes and just as I was about to start folding the 3 baskets of laundry that had piled up, Jared bounded up the stairs announcing that he had to go change into long pants and said we were going to have a little shopping adventure! I clapped my hands in sheer pleasure and ran to get my coat on.

We drove to Forest Lake, and headed for Menards. I had no clue what he needed to get, but I followed him in. He led me to the Christmas village section and let me pick out some little pine trees to add to my village! I was really excited! Then, we walked through the Christmas lights section and we picked out some lights to hang in our bay window... even more excited! With treasures in hand, and in the midst of a conversation, Jared spotted a row of tree skirts which he knew I had been pining after. He casually stopped and let me look at them. After gently caressing the one I loved the most, I turned to keep walking. But Jared stood there and smiled and told me to pick one out! I could hardly believe it! Before, he told me that we would have to wait until after Christmas and buy one on sale. Together we chose a beautiful crimson velvet tree skirt with tiny gold sequins. Hugging my new treasure tight to my chest, I headed to the front of the store and turned to the checkouts. But Jared guided me the other way, through the sliding doors, to the outside section. He stopped in front of the Christmas trees! Beaming, he told me to pick one! This is when I lost it and just buried my face in his chest, crying. We both grew up with real trees and missed having them, but the past few years we simply couldn't afford a real tree and bought a cheap 5 foot fake one. I simply couldn't believe we were getting a real tree this year! I love the smell of pine! After about 20 minutes of carefully inspecting several trees, which was diffilcult since all of them were already tied up and bound so tight we couldnt tell what they would look like anyways, we picked one and proudly brought it back through the store and into a checkout lane. (Funny sight, really!)
We got home, untied the tree and shook it out, and it looks beautiful! It is really full and perfectly shaped! We picked a good one!
Tonight we get to put it up...