the gris"wall" family christmas tree.

this was the "ah-ha" moment.

the tree was ridiculously heavy. i was very little help, as i can barely lift my arms above my head when not holding a 150 pound tree. it hung over the sides of the car and down the back window.
it fit perfectly in our front room. after matty used the hatchet from my 72-hour kit to take off about a foot and a half of sappy trunk and thirty or so odd branches.
after matt "trimmed" the tree, we anchored it to two studs we found in the back walls. it was still well over ten feet tall.

the kids loved standing on matty's shoulders to hang their ornaments.

it took over 800 lights to make the tree look this good.
coop was the only one tall enough to stand on matty's shoulders and christen the top of the tree with our star.
i bet you're wondering how we took this fantastic picture. i smashed a big hunk of play dough on the edge of the stairs and set the self timer. genius.