On Thursday after work we took the traditional evening trip to the local Home Depot to pick out our tree. It was a good night to go - they had just received a shipment of trees, and we had the place to ourselves. Personal service from the Home Depot tree jockeys made opening up trees a breeze and we picked one out in ten minutes flat - a new Williams Family Record. Here are Cam and Claire in front of the stacks, and a family shot in front of The One:



I spent all day Saturday putting lights on the tree. This year I only managed to get 1,600 lights on the poor thing.

Sunday Claire, Cameron, and I went on the traditional Mistletoe Hunt. Here are the kids with the Super Pruner, ready to go into the Secret Culvert in search of everybody's favorite holiday parasite (Aside from Uncle Doug, that is):



Of course there was more of the stuff around than we knew what to do with. We didn't really need the pruner but I figured what the heck - I may as well bring it, even if only for the entertainment value. Here are the kids using hand pruners:



We ended up with a garbage bag full. We don't need anywhere near that much but once we get out there I tend to get carried away. Plus, we had that big pruner, and both Claire and Cam wanted to try it out. Anyway, the kids posed for me with the bounty of our harvest:



Later in the afternoon we got the tree decorated. The kids really enjoyed unwrapping the ornaments and hanging them. Katy and I enjoyed following them around and subtly relocating things to spread them out a bit.



Here's a picture of an ornament my Mom made when I was still in high school. Look familiar?





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