Christmas Traditions

Every family has 'em. Things you do each year around Christmas-time that become traditions. Memories etched in children's minds that they'll recall years later.

We haven't been too intentional about setting up traditions for our household. But there are a few things we do each year that we look forward to.

One of those is chopping down our own tree at a Christmas tree farm.

We've been doing this now for probably 10 years. And it is SO FUN. We ride out in the countryside to the farm (it's about an hour's drive). Then we hope on a trailer that is hooked up to a tractor and go for a hay ride out into the Christmas trees. We get dropped off with a saw. Then we wander and wander around, looking for the right tree.



Can't be too small. Can't be too high. Can't be too sparse. Can't be too crooked.



When we finally find IT, Scott starts sawing back and forth while I hopefully pull the tree in the right direction (the first year we did this, I accidentally pulled the tree in the wrong direction while Scott was sawing, binding the blade. Scott worked up a ginormous sweat for 30 minutes before we realized why this cutting a tree down business seemed a lot harder than it needed to be) . Then we haul our prize to the path where we and the tree get picked up and brought back up to the barn, which is where everyone pays for their trees. Grab a cup of hot apple cider, browse around at the crafts for sale in the barn, and then it's time to go home and decorate! Incidentally, the tree we purchased this year had a bird's nest inside as a bonus!







We weren't able to go to our normal tree farm this year (Our normal one was closed because their crop wasn't good enough this year). So we went to our backup tree farm. Only to get their and find out that they don't take debit cards. Only cash and check. Neither of which we had on us. So as Scott went to town to find an ATM, the kids and I hung out at the playground set up at the farm. I think the kids had more fun at this point in the trip.






I then tried to get some good shots of the kids together, thinking that it would make a great present for grandparents and for Scott. Didn't work out. Not so much.









But I did manage to get a few decent individual pictures of the kids






After torturing the kids for several minutes trying to get shots of them, I let them go back to what they do best: make a mess. They began making a HUGE pile of leaves



And then jumped in them

Not sure who the other kid is. Or where Jack is. But no fears. We eventually did find Jack (he was just out of this shot) and went home to decorate our ransomed evergreen. After Scott came back with cash, of course.