Christmas tree

Last Saturday I'm in the dining room working on my scrapbook. Rose is doing some homework, and Joey is sitting with me and drawing some christmas cards. Mom and UBie were 'Christmas shopping', so there was nobody else at home. All of a sudden the telephone rings. Joey answers it and it's them (Mom and UBie). We had to be ready in 8 minutes (wow :P) because we were going to.... get the Christmas Tree!!!

So I go running to my room, get my coat, put on my socks and grab my camera. Everything is perfect, and in 2 minutes I'm ready. SO I had to wait another 6 minutes :P

Rose and I jumped into the car and we went to the tree place (Joey preferred to stay to work on the christmas cards, he says he's been there too many times and he already knows it). At first I was disappointed because I expected to cut down a tree from the forest. Yes, that was what I imagined, but Mom and UBie told me that that's actually illegal. You can go to a private farm and do that, but the tree will cost $200 :S

Nut anyway, disappoinment aside, it was a very pleasant experience. In my opinion, trees were rather cheap (the most expensive ones, like the one we bought, were $32), and it is always nice to have a real tree for Christmas rather than a fake one if you have room for it.

As far as I'm concerned, most people, even today, buy true Christmas trees, and decorating it is one of the big family events of Christmas. Some people will even paint their own ornaments. I find it a very nice tradition.

Another thing I find interesting is that here people buy presents for everybody. Even for ex husbands or family you don't see at all. At first I thought it was only this family, but then at school I hear the other students talking about how many presents left they have to buy, and the funny thing is that they buy them with their own money!! That'll be another post, how so many teenagers here work. ;D

Also instead of sending Christmas cards, a popular thing is to have a picture taken of the whole family and send it to your friends/neighbours, etc. My family doesn't do that, but they've received many of those cards so far.

That's all I can tell so far! I guess there's still so much for me to learn about american traditions, and so much I won't be able to learn in the short period of a year. I hope you find this interesting!!

By the way tomorrow I'll publish another post. I made a paella on Sunday instead of going to the cinema. DOn't be afraid, it was very good actually, and as you can see I'm alive still!!

The pictures are in my photobucket, both of the christmas tree and of the paella ;D

IMPORTANTE!! Deciros que tengo jamon, chorico, salchichon y lomo. No se como, pero hemos burlado a las autoridades americanas xDD En los DVDs podiais haberme metido algo, y las carpetas en realidad me van a ser utiles porque necesitaba algunas, asi que ya no me las tengo que comprar. ESpero que el paquete no tarde mucho!!! Escribo todo esto en espa;ol porqu eno tengo ni idea de como se dice jamon, chorizo, lomo y salchichon en cualquier otro idioma sin estropearlo... jejeje!!