Real, Fake and Candy trees!

We're a real family gone fake. I'm talking Christmas trees here. I have fond memories of real trees growing up. I always wanted the biggest tree on the lot and my dad usually let me get the one I wanted-as long as it wasn't too outrageously priced.

So Mike and I always bought real trees together, all through college and then up until the year Ainsley was born, that was the year I'd had enough...

You see we had already purchased our real tree but the bottom of it still had to be cut down some to fit into the base a little bit better, something Mike said he would do. Well I was becoming impatient to start decorating (surprise, surprise) and it was just standing there waiting to be decorated. I thought it fit just fine in the base even though Mike said that it didn't but I already had my mind set. Mike had to work late that night so I decided to just go ahead with it (I know, I'm bad) Well everything was going fine, I had the lights on and most of the balls on when the tree started to lean. Did I mention I was 32 weeks pregnant at the time?? So I thought okay, I'll just stick my hand on the trunk to straighten it out a little, well then it really started to fall. If I let the tree fall, all the balls would come crashing to the floor (hard wood) and it would be a complete mess not to mention glass all over the place. So I got up under the sap filled tree and held it....with my gigantic pregnant belly....sap falling all over me...for close to an hour!!!! Just picture it folks.

Mike finally got home: " Adrienne, Adrienne-where are you?" and there I was under the tree, trying my hardest to keep it from crashing to the floor. All Mike could do was laugh and of course he helped me but I was not laughing, nooo, not at all. I told him it would be the last year we had a real tree. Yes I can laugh about it now-it's just typical Adrienne, I'm stubborn and once I have my mind set on something no matter how stupid it may be, I'm going to do it if I think it can be done. Ahhh, I don't think I'll ever learn from my mistakes either, I'm just too stubborn.

So from then on it's been our trusty fake with lights and all, we just pull it out from the basement whenever we want and plug the baby in. I know it's not as fun as going to pick out your own tree and you don't get that Christmas tree smell but that's where this comes in handy:

Smells just like a Christmas tree if not better!

Speaking of trees, how do you like these "sweet" trees the girls and I made?:

I have to say they look much better in person!

I saw this on HGTV last year but it was too late to make them so I decided this year I'd give it a try. I forgot how they said to make them so I went onto some sites and the instructions said to use powdered sugar and water to get the candies to stick. Um....that didn't work. Candies were quickly sliding down the cone into one. big. pile. So unless I'm missing a huge step here I just don't know where I went wrong. Before totally throwing everything away and giving up I thought I'd give my old glue gun a try and wouldn't you know it worked like a charm! Why I didn't think of it in the first place is beyond me. I love that glue gun!

Of course with the glue gun the girls couldn't help me stick the candies on the cones but they had just as much fun handing me the candies and watching the cones turn into colorful Christmas trees. And of course you can't eat them but I don't think the candies are meant to be eaten any way are they?? I figure if I just put these in a big zip lock bag I can reuse these next year-candy doesn't go bad, right? The girls really did like this little project and seeing the trees in the house just reminds you of being a kid again.

So...are you a real tree family or a fake tree family?