Putting up the tree

This is the second year that Drew and I have had a Christmas tree.  Waaaay back when I first started this blog I think it was one of the first pictures I posted.  Let me go check - yup, it was!  Gollee, that was a million years ago!

This year's tree was bigger, over six feet this time.  It's a Noble Fir - I have no idea what that means and how that makes it different from other trees.  The only other kind that comes to mind is the Douglas Fir - beyond that, I'm lost.  Big, green, smell good - those are my criteria for a Christmas tree.

Saturday he came home with the tree, but we didn't decorate it till Sunday night.  We wanted to make sure the dog wouldn't attack it - I had visions of our ornaments shattering in a million pieces on the living room floor.

First, we set up the tree, securing it in the base and trimming off the lowest branches.  Then we set up the gate around it and brought the dog in to see what she would do.  In retrospect, I realize I should have taken pictures of all these steps, but sometimes ya get busy living and you forget to blog about it, knowwhatImean?

Luckily, the dog didn't seem all that interested once she gave it a good once-over smell.  We felt confident enough to take down the gate and start decorating.

Drew's mom got us the most bee-yoo-ti-ful ornaments and I couldn't wait to put them on the tree.  At the same time, I was terrified because I would surely die of a broken heart if that dog ruined any of them - they're that pretty!  But you can't live in fear so I fearlessly opened the box!

Aren't they bee-yoo-ti-ful?

Each ornament signified a blessing for the newleywed couple.  There was a teapot for hospitalitiy, an angel for God's blessing over our home, a heart with two rings on it for true love, a rabbit for faith, and I can't remember the others off the top of my heart.  Oh but wait!  My personal favorite was the pinecone for motherhood and fruitfulness.  I hung that one myself.

That pinecone looks like a penis.

I'm serious, the pinecone is my favorite!  The ornaments are meant to be heirlooms to be passed down to future generations, but I'm thinking the pinecone is staying with me. 

Drew hung the lights - last year, we very quickly figured out that stringing the lights would be his job, hanging the ornaments would be mine.  His OCD dedication to precision makes him much more suited to optimum light placement.  On the other hand, hanging ornaments is much more about feeling and random-ness, so that's all me.  We hung the lights with minimal snipping at each other - it's about the big picture y'all!

Once the lights were hung, he sat on the sofa with the dog and a glass of wine while I hung the ornaments.  We hung his mom's ornaments near the top and I say a little prayer every day that the dog doesn't go nuts and just decided to pull the tree down.  So far, so good.

The finished product!

Then I started playing around with my camera.  I don't know much about the settings, and I'd really like to do more with it.  By accident, I found some interesting settings that I'm looking forward to using.

Non-blurry ornament close-up.

I can't remember what the fish stands for, but I like how clear the pine needles are. 

I mean fir needles.

We got this ornament last year and finally we had a good picture to put in it!

Another tree picture taken at a different ISO.  What is ISO you ask?  I haven't the slightest, but my camera has different ones.

My baby, keepin it classy.

Then I took a picture of the dog - no glowy Satan eyes!  Holla!

Different ISO, which made the flash go off.  I think.

I know this one is blurry, I just thought it was cute.

There's even a black and white setting!  On the camera!  It came out a little blurry though. 

Taken with the sport setting - her looks so shiny!

I like the color and warmth on this one.

I'm going to play around some more with my camera and see what I learn.  I've already been googling random stuff.  I still don't know what ISO means - something to do with light speed?  Lens opening?  I don't know.  Between the picture stuff and computer stuff - I'm playing around with my layout - I'm learning all kinds of technical stuff!