Our "Spain" Christmas Tree

Ok, this was a little difficult for me.  I know, of all things, something as little as this was hard! haha... well, we have ALWAYS had a real tree.  Even when money was really tight, it was always a priority.  I remember cutting down our own trees, growing up!  Finding just the right tree... and the smell!!  You just can't beat it.  It's so much a part of Christmas, to me.

Well, we asked and asked and looked and looked.  We finally did find a place that had a "real tree", but it was potted!!!!!!! (How European, right??) It was tiny, and it didn't even smell like a Christmas tree.  I have no idea what that was all about, but that was almost more depressing than a fake one! ... so we gave in and decided to get our very first, fake Christmas tree.  Such huge sacrifices we make over here on the field! ... haha...

Wes and I did our best to find the biggest and fullest tree; but... well, you can see the results...

Our tree in a box!

Weston loves to build things, so this was such a great adventure for him!  I was so glad; b/c honestly, I was a little depressed. :)  There's nothing like the beautiful excitement of children!!

Step by step our tree grew!

EVERYONE helped!

Adding lights as you go is so much easier, according to Wes! :)

Jonathan was "creating" his own branch. haha...  The kids just loved it!

There!

I brought some of our ornaments from home (not all, b/c I didn't know if I would have a place to store them.  The special ones came with us...)  We just let the kids put all the ornaments wherever they wanted.  They were so thrilled, and Weston was tall enough that he could get the top of the tree! :)

Carolina was enthralled with all these "pretties!"

I think it exhausted her. haha... too much excitement!

So, that was the end result!

After the kids went to bed, I re-arranged some, but it still looked kinda sad.  So I decided to improvise.  I think I'm getting good at that here. :) I don't think I actually took a picture of the final product after I was finished, but the tree looked so small.  I decided to put it up on a "stand."  I found two empty diaper boxes (I knew they would come in handy sometime!!! haha....)  I put a blanket over the boxes and then wrapped a table runner around the stand. ( I also can't find tree skirts here.) It at least made it look a little taller. 

It still looked quite sparse, though, so I went to a nearby shop and bought a bunch of Christmas ribbon.  I added the ribbon in all the empty places, and that seemed to help alot!  Amazing what red ribbon and diaper boxes can do!

I forgot to get a full picture of the finished tree, but at least you can see it in the corner of this picture. :)

This was our first Christmas tree here in Spain!  Even though I was quite sad to begin with, I think we did pretty well in the end.  And the excitement from "building" the tree was definitely enough to replace the sadness!! :)  What memories we are making!