A Christmas Tree Quandry

I've always loved real Christmas trees. I think my family had a fake one for a couple of years, but one fateful Christmas we had a new puppy in the house who decided to unwrap all of our gifts and chew up the tree a few days before Christmas. I think we stuck with real after that. And kept the dog outside while the gifts were under the tree. Really it's a miracle nothing caught on fire.

But I digress...
The question is: real tree or fake tree?
Keep in mind I haven't done any research (i.e. googled it) or anything, but I thought I'd share my thought process going into this holiday season.

Real trees:
Pros- They smell awesome. Really really awesome.
They look prettier than fake trees (to me).
It feels like Christmas when I have a real tree.
Cons- They shed needles all over the place.
I'm always scared my dogs will try to pee on real trees (even though they never have).
How environmentally friendly is it to have a real tree? (This is what I need to google more).

Fake Trees:
Pros- They're way cheaper in the long run. If you take good care of them...
Cons - They don't smell anything like awesome.
Way less pretty than real trees (to me).
Maybe my dogs will use a fake tree as a chew toy?!
I have no idea what fake trees impact on the environment is. I feel sure they aren't biodegradable, nor can they be turned into mulch. Even I know that.
What on earth are these things made of anyway?

What have you or your family decided? Real tree or fake tree? Why?

If you are going for a real tree, and you live in the good ol' LG, I do know of a farm where you can cut down your own tree, and pet their cows, horses and yes people, llamas. You just let me know if you need directions.

While you're thinking about all this, turn on your favorite Christmas music and drink something warm - it's Christmas time!

How do I look?

Like the new look of my blog? I thought it would be nice to get in the Thanksgiving spirit. I feel like Thanksgiving is being taken over by Christmas already. Have you seen how many aisles of Christmas stuff Target already has? Of course, Thanksgiving doesn't require gifts, doesn't have pop music to go along with it, and there's nothing to carve or decorate or dress up as specfically for Thanksgiving so I guess it's not very beneficial for stores to promote it all that much.

Thanksgiving might just be my favorite holiday. I love to eat. And Thanksgiving is the time of year I can guarantee my favorite food will be abundant. Between now and Christmas, I will most likely eat my own body weight in dressing. Oh it's so delicious. But I also love that Thanksgiving doesn't have the same expectations that other holidays do. I know on Thanksgiving, I'll watch the Macy's parade, eat a lot and hang out with family and friends. I might take a nap, I might be forced to watch some football, but I'll definitely laugh. I love how full I feel on Thanksgiving - of joy, not just dressing. I think the best word for it is comfortable. So give thanks and enjoying being stuffed!

What's your favorite part of Thanksgiving?

We're back!

I know what you're thinking... this is another "OMG I haven't posted in so long and I'm so sorry but I'm going to be the best blogger ever now!" post again. Nope. Well, it can be that too I guess, but I think we all know that I'm a remedial blogger at best. I'm okay with that. Let's move on.

What I actually mean is, we're back to Georiga. For good. Long story short - we had some family emergencies and re-examined our priorities and realized that we needed to be much closer to our families pretty much immediately. So that's what we did. After rushing down when Derek's little brother got put in the hospital we drove back to DC, packed up all our stuff, and were back in GA in a matter of 3 days.

I can't say that we miss it. We wanted a big adventure, and we wanted to feel like we were really doing something with our lives. We're over that now. I know we would have always wondered "what if" if we hadn't moved to DC, but we'll never have to wonder that again. We hated taking an hour to an hour and a half to get absolutely anywhere. We hated how expensive everything was. We hated that nothing was convenient. There were great things about the city, but we didn't get to experience most of them because of where we lived. I spent 3+ hours a day in my car. I never drove further than 16 miles in a day. It was frustrating.

We're getting settled in here. We got a new house that we L-O-V-E! I'm working back at the college, but in a different position than before, and Derek is still interviewing for several jobs. It definitely feels like home though.

Our whole perspective changed throughout all of this so we're definitely glad we had this whole experience. We're so glad to be back near the people we love and we can't wait for what's in store for us next!