About 7 years ago, we bought a gorgeous real tree - just as we had for years and years. We didn't decorate it that day - decided to wait until the next day.

It was so weird - I told Douglas the next day that I wanted to take that tree down. I just had a bad feeling about it. He was about to tell me the same thing. So no tree that year. We went up to Bronners a few months later and bought a fake one. It's lovely, and we're very happy we did it. Our son liked it so much that we bought one for them, also.

A few years later, we weren't able to complete the decorating of it, though. Reese was a kitten in 2001, and decided the fake tree was hers to climb and play in.



In 2002, Reese was older, and larger, but still climbed up into the tree. She also had Abby, then 5 months old, to follow along. It wasn't until last Christmas that we were finally able to totally decorate the tree again.