oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree, i sure as heck love thee

we have the world's most adorable christmas tree. don't try to argue with me. i know it's true. (i wonder if i'm going to be as proud and possessive of our kid as i am of our tree.)

it's an 18-inch (not including the pot), asymmetrical austrian pine that we obtained for the bargain price of $12. we have not yet discussed what we will do with it after the holidays... whether we will keep it around until next year, or find someone's yard to plant it in. minor details.

we are holding off on the decorations until don's arrive from california. i have all mine (one from each year of my life, mostly angels from grandma) here already, even the chic gold-painted juice top with hot-glue-gunned macaroni and a class pic from 1st grade. we were going to at least put lights on it, but the a-DOR-able ones i found at fred meyer have lead-coated wiring, so we returned them. every other kind of lights in the whole aisle also had lead, so no lights for us. how can people think that's a good idea???!!! the label suggests that we merely "wash hands after use" but seriously. we purposely buy the more expensive water filter that removes lead, we paint over anything that might possibly have lead... and then decorate our homes with things that blatently say, "contains lead?" c'mon!