O Tannenbaum!

Let me tell you, some of the hardest decisions to make are what should be the easiest.

Sean and I had three options for a Christmas tree:

1. Use my miniature artificial tree to save money.
2. Buy a bigger artificial tree, which is bad for the environment, but would be reused for all of the foreseeable future. Also, doesn't need water, doesn't demand vacuuming, etc.
3. Buy a real tree, which is what both of us grew up doing.

I posed this question to the internets and here are two of the 20 responses I got on Facebook:

• "Real trees blow. Go with a large fake one, they aren't expensive, they last for years, and best of all they don't flare up seasonal allergies."
• "Real. It's biodegradeable and it'll smell like Christmas. Even the Apple Store has one. Think about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, there's bound to be one plastic tree up in that mess....."

I decided that since it's my first Christmas with my future husband, my first in our new home and my first in Newport News, we should go with real. I'm here to say: So far, so good. Watering isn't too much to ask and Sean quickly vacuumed up the needles.

We went to Dean and Don's Farm Market on Warwick Avenue in Newport News, which was such a great choice. The trees sold there are farmed in Floyd, Va. and each is tagged with a name and a price. We saw "Carly Simon," "Hannah Montana," "Bullwinkle" and some other fun ones, but we brought home a handsome fir named "Thing 1."

We also brought home a Target pre-lit artificial wreath to hang on the porch door.

I wish I could say decorating was easy. Sean has a bit of a reputation in his family as a Grinch and I think I might have been a bit grinchy for both of us. I'm a very particular, very just-so kind of person, which makes me a terror when trying to trim the tree.

We didn't have enough white lights for a big tree (since I only had lights for a mini tree), so Sean graciously went out to Target to get two more strands. Then he brought those home and we found he'd bought white cord lights, to which I said, "WHITE CORDS? WHITE CORDS? WHO ARE YOU?!" So he went back and exchanged them.

And hours later, after two trips to Target, several breaks to watch a very anticlimactic Amazing Race finale and other distractions, we finished. And may I say, I think our tree is gorgeous.

I set up my new glass jars (to be filled with candy) in front of a mirror with a garland I used to drape on my mantel at my much-missed Staunton apartment.

I trimmed the garland with my IKEA diamond-shaped lights. LOVE them, but I don't love that LED color.

Most of my ornaments are ones I've had since childhood. I dug and dug through the box to find my favorite -- a glass ballerina. So gorgeous.

And we bought Sean an ornament of his very own, one of two on the whole tree. We need to buy this boy some ornaments, stat!