Oooooooooooooo Christmas Tree!

I have a theory that for every non-consumable thing that you need (and for some of the consumable ones), there is someone who has it, doesn't want it, and would love to give it away. We had an experience this week that adds weight to my theory:

Behold! Our Christmas Tree! Yesterday I went to visit a (very) pregnant friend and while we were chatting, a lady called her and told her she was bringing her a Christmas tree. It's a long story why, but this woman had "leftover trees" and was trying to place them in tree-less homes. When she got there, she told me she had another tree - did I have a high ceiling? Yes, extremely high. Would I like a 9 foot tree? A little stunned, I said, sure!

She also had A LOT of extra decorations, including two really really really nice tree skirts. She met up with me today to hand over the 9 footer and also gave me a lighted wreath, 6 dozen (DOZEN) glittery unbreakable ball ornaments, 10 boxes (some with 4, some with 5) clear glass ball ornaments, and a big bag of other decorations which I don't think will fit in to our childproofed home.

Doesn't Annalise look Christmas-y in her red, sleeveless sundress?

We moved the ornaments from our fiberoptic tree to the new giant tree. The fiberoptic tree falls over at least once every year, so I don't put breakable ornaments on it. But this tree has a nice wide base, so I brought everything out! Including...
The White House ornament Bekah gave me.

All the ornaments Rob's mom saved for him over the years - I *think* the oldest is this ball from 1976.

My lovely Arkansas Razorbacks ornament.

Caleb's rainbow bear he made at Breakfast with Santa last year.

And the famed Black Duck - Caleb's first Breakfast with Santa ornament, which he painted when he was only 15 months old!