Our First Christmas Tree

Presenting our first Christmas tree:

Friends, the time came when we could already afford to buy a Christmas tree. Yay! We were both blessed to have jobs this year and we could, at last, be able to decorate our tiny home with more than just some DIYs. Last Christmas, our first Christmas as a married couple, the only Christmas decor we could afford to decorate our home with was this DIY advent calendar. Not that it didn't look good and festive enough, it's just a real Christmas tree is both a dream of ours. Yes, this is one of our little childish dreams that we carry in our hearts.

This is then how our journey looked like from buying our first ever Christmas tree to setting it up in our tiny home (all photos were taken  using an iPhone5, so forgive the quality).

Our first hunt for this tree started in IKEA which failed miserably because first of all, they didn't sell real ones and secondly, I hurt my finger and needed medical assistance to treat the cut. Oh well... We went home shoulders low but humour high singing this song to the tune of Oh Christmas Tree:

"Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree

Wala pa rin kaming Christmas tree..."

The week after, we went out to search for this tree again that would seemingly complete our second Christmas season in Ireland. Luckily we found this Christmas tree market at this busy street in Dublin almost just a street behind R's office.  From a row of almost 50 pine trees, we selected a medium-priced one. Well, actually I let this man choose, the reason for his precious smile.

When R insisted on a real one, logistics issue wasn't considered (i.e. how to bring the tree from market to home). We didn't have a car and since we were too frugal like that, R chose to hand-carry (or shoulder-carry?!) it home---a 15-minute walk if you weren't carrying anything heavy. Needless to say, it took a good 30 minutes or more to bring our baby home. But it did arrive to our house threshold alright.

Another challenge was how to place it in our tiny living room slash dining area. We cleaned and rearranged, tried dozen arrangements and we even moved the couch (not seen here) just to see how everything would fit together!  But that too was taken care of. 

The decorations consisted of basic Christmas balls of red and gold (bought on sale), a plain white Christmas light (that's not even musical but it was at least LED), and an angel topper given by an Ate from church knowing that we were buying our first Christmas tree ever. We were grateful. 

And after a while, here's our first ever real Christmas tree which just doesn't make this season festive, but warm enough to get us through another Christmas we are spending away from our families. Merry Christmas soon! :)