I was a young gal when my mother decided we were switching from real Christmas trees to an artificial one. I remember thinking it was an abomination against all that is good and swore that when I had my own house and my own tree, it would be real!

Well, I finally got my real tree.

My husband and I never did a tree the four years we’ve lived together. We lived in tiny apartments and didn’t want to fuss with it.

But this year, we gleefully prepared for getting a living Christmas tree.

Now, there’s a lot of start-up capital needed to get your first Christmas tree. We had to buy the stand, the lights, the tree skirt and the illuminated star for the top (the cat has already chewed through the power cord for that one).

We selected a 6 1/2 foot noble pine for our tree. It’s holding up pretty good with daily waterings for the past week and a half.

We went with white LED lights. They are super bright, but don’t have that warm, candle-like glow that the traditional white lights have. We also didn’t buy nearly enough lights, so we found an old multi-colored strand to fill in the gaps.