Funny Christmas tree story

I love Christmas! Even though last year was technically our first Christmas together as a married couple, we spent it at my parents' house as usual so we didn't have something that was really "ours" (though it was still a really nice holiday, of course). With the new house this year and all, this really feels like our "first" Christmas together.

On Thursday we went out and bought our first Christmas tree together. So exciting! The only problem was, the store ran out of tree stands but they didn't tell us that until AFTER they tied the tree up and everything. So the guy told us to just leave the tree outside in a bucket of water until the stands came in tomorrow and we could get one then. No problem.

Well, the water froze!

It's been unseasonably warm here for most of November and into December (60s) so we had no idea it was supposed to be so cold overnight and into Friday morning. I took a half day on Friday and when I got home in the afternoon and checked on it, sure enough all 10 gallons or so of water were completely frozen and the bucket was attached to the tree!

We brought it back inside the house and I was soooooo afraid we killed our first tree together! That would have made me sad. But I'm happy to report that since thawing out it's been sucking up water faster than we can replace it so I guess that means it's still living :) Here's a pic of it back in the house but still tied up and still frozen to the bucket: