O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Christmas in North Dakota is a bit different than the Christmases I'm used to back home. There aren't any poinsettias (in the places I've been to at least, which I'll admit aren't that many yet), light-lined streets or a big Christmas tree in the park...but there is snow. I LOVE SNOW. Snow is incredible. It's as though everything changes when it snows, you get that certain holiday feeling about life even if it isn't quite Christmas yet. Another reason that this Christmas will be different is that its the first Christmas I have ever spent away from my family. My husband is my family now too though, so I'm not entirely without. This will be the first Christmas we will get to spend fully together, so I'm going to choose to look at the positives.

My biggest goal regarding Christmas in ND was that I absolutely HAD TO HAVE a Christmas tree. Unfortunately, by the time we got up here, all the real ones were already sold, and where on earth do you buy ornaments for your first adult Christmas anyway!? Walmart it is! I bought a pre-lit 6.5 foot tree for about $40 today (not half bad if I do say so myself), two extra strands of lights (still not enough lights if I'm being entirely honest) and about 100 some odd gold (yes, over half of them are gold glitter, if I'm again being entirely honest) ornaments. It turned out quite beautiful. It's not my mom's tree, but it's a start.

My husband, bless him, doesn't particularly like putting up Christmas trees. I, however, did so wearing a Santa hat. He did help me more than his fair share though, twisting wire into ornament hooks since the Williston Walmart (or what I like to call WillyMart - such fun! - [see: Miranda on Hulu and you'll get what I mean]) ran completely out of hooks. 6,000 ornaments without any hooks! "Manager, your inventory planning skills could use some work, please and thank you."

So, thus begins our Christmas in the Bakken.