Christmas Tree Adventures!

Well, call me crazy, but this year I thought it would be fun to cut down a real tree with the girls.  I LOOOOVE the smell of a real tree and really wanted the girls (and selfeshly myself) to experience picking out and cutting down a Christmas tree.  I have always wanted to do this so this was my first time along with the girls. 

 The problem:  I had built this up this wonderful fantasy in my puny little mind of how we would find our perfect tree, with our perfect family, and it would be such a joyful occasion.  Reality:  We set out at 3pm with no naps to a destination unknown.  Can you see where this is going?!

Our first stop was a dud and 25 minutes north of our home!  I mean Not. Good. At. All.  It was cold.  The girls wanted to bring home every Charlie Brown Tree in the lot.  Not that I'm opposed to a less than perfect tree, but these were bad.  They were either too big to fit in our house or 4 feet tall......and spindly.  After traipsing the 5 acres Mark and I called it a bust and told the girls we were leaving.  As you can tell from the picture above, they were not happy.  They were tired of walking, cold, and cranky. 

But we were determined and headed to destination #2, 20 minutes south of our home.  Getting the picture, we had to drive 45 minutes.  We pulled in at 4:20pm.  They close at 5pm.  That gave us 40 minutes to find and cut down our "perfect" tree.  Not much time with lots of acres and 2 girls with little legs.  My fantasy was becoming less and less the joyful occasion I conjured up. 

Paige had to pee, but we were like 1/4 mile from the entrance and there were no potties.  She wouldn't even consider going outside, even though there were no people around and lots of what looked like cow poo, so I know it would have been fine.  So we had complaints of needing to pee, Alaina was tired, I was telling them we need to hurry.  It was so pleasant.  I, of course, can't just settle for the first nice tree we come to (even though it is the one we end up with), I have to search out the entire lot because a better one might be around the corner. 

But we did find one.  One that we all liked, even if it was pretty much dark and we had no time left anyway.

Mark set to work cutting it down.  I think the girls thought it was pretty cool to cut down our own tree.

FINALLY, we are ready to head home!  It may not have been a perfect or the way I had pictured it, but I think we did have fun and would do it again.  (Though maybe not every year.)

We decorated the tree the next evening.  Mark holding the girls so they could put the angel on.

The girls in front of the finished product!  I just love this time of year with the house all cozy and decorated!

Don't you wanna just sit down with a good book and a cup of coffee!

The girls sure love it!