New Family Tradition: Cutting Down the Christmas Tree

On Saturday we went up to the mountains to cut down our first real Christmas tree! Trent and I both remember going with our families to the mountains to get a Christmas tree and riding behind our dads' trucks on sleds (Trent calls it hooky-bobbing...). Anyway, we want to make it a tradition with our family.

Trent was amazing and packed EVERYTHING that we could possibly need on Friday night. On Saturday morning we woke up and we were out the door within 20 minutes, with me on the tail end grabbing extra things that I couldn't have thought of the night before, like toys and the like (this pretty much describes our different packing strategies). The drive was beautiful and we drove through an area that we had never been to before. There was barely any snow on the road but we did find a hill that we rode down about three times until Ethan was done (poor kid, he is most decidedly not accustomed to cold). We found a place with promise for finding a tree and parked the truck and walked across a large field of snow and ice. We walked along the trees which formed a line between the field and the base of a hill. Unfortunately Ethan and Logan got cold quickly and by the time we thought we had found our tree both of them were crying. We decided that it would not be fun to cut the tree down like that so we hoofed it back across the field and sat in the truck to eat lunch and warm up. Soon both boys were happy and warm. After lunch we drove until we could see what looked like a tree worth cutting down. We hopped out of the truck, walked back across the field, quickly chose a different tree and chopped it down before anyone could get cold! We kept driving for awhile though and found a beautiful snowy area that would be a great place to camp next summer and had much better trees to choose from for next year!

After we got home we spent the afternoon putting up and decorating the tree and the rest of the house with Christmas things. It has really brought some extra excitement into our home and Ethan loves to look at the tree and the presents underneath. The excitement is my favorite part about Christmas. It is in the air. I always feel sad on Christmas Day and I think it is because I don't want that wonder and excitement to be done. I miss it. But, I am grateful to have it now and I am grateful to have such a great family to share it with!