The countdown begins

I took the first part of my prelims today! This about sums it up...

via PhD comics

via Huffington Post

Now I have 1 week to finish the take-home exam (which is a series of essays) and then I'll be done!!

New Christmas Tradition

Dan and I cut down our very first Christmas tree this weekend!

Ever since I can remember, my family has always had an artificial tree, so I was SUPER excited to get a real one this year. We decided to go to a tree farm and cut one down for ourselves and make it our new family tradition. After Christmas last year I bought a bunch of holiday decorations and ornaments on sale, so I've been planning for our first tree for a while.

The tree farm was really cute and had a bunch of wreaths, garland, and pre-cut trees to choose from as well as several fields of trees to cut down. They even had complimentary cider in their Christmas shop (which was really convenient, since we went on one of the coldest days this year!)

We walked the rows of trees for a bit and found one we liked right off the bat, but wanted to keep looking. Next year we'll have to bring flags or ribbon or something because it probably took us twice as long to go back and find the one we originally picked. They all started to look the same!

The winner! We decided on a petite 5 1/2 ft Balsam Fir. 

Dan making the first cut.

Next we brought it back to be shook and baled. We were going to tie it on top of our car, but since we picked a smaller one it fit nicely in the back with our seat down. Now our car smells amazing!

Abbey isn't too sure about our new addition! We bought a pretty sturdy stand, so hopefully we won't wake up to a tipped over tree. So far she's more interested in the water at the base than the actual tree.

I bought a bunch of preppy ornaments last winter, so we have a lot of stripes, dots, and plaid going on. I'm hoping to get a plaid tree skirt at some point too.

Stockings! We don't have a mantle over our fireplace (and I don't want these to catch fire). The tiny plaid one in the middle is for Abbey.

Our front door wreath.

I made these last year out of baby popsicle sticks and red paint. I'm actually surprised they are still intact, since they are pretty fragile. 

Our place is very cozy now and it smells SO good! I'm so glad we got a real tree this year and I think we'll cut one down every year as our little family tradition.

Christmas is coming!