Oh Tannenbaum

I love traditions! I think one of the things that is so wonderful about Christmas is looking forward to the things you love to do together. One of those things growing up was our annual Christmas tree hunt. On the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving, my mom would make her cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate and we would all get bundled up in our snow clothes and drive up to the "5 mile". Now if your not from Parowan, the 5 mile is 5 miles up the canyon. Pretty complex but that's how we roll. We would stomp through the snow up the mountain, over the river, searching for the perfect Christmas tree. Who cares about frostbitten fingers, who cares about cold wet feet, we were on a mission. After finding the perfect tree, we would drag it back to the truck and devour the Cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. Our family always use to attempt to sing the song "Oh Shenandoah" but we could never get the harmony's right and we would always bust out laughing. I remember one time up the canyon singing while hunting and we actually sang it all the way through. That is just ONE of the wonderful memories I have Christmas tree hunting. I just CAN'T get a fake tree yet. Therefore, my NOW family has our tradition of Christmas tree hunting.

It is a little different here in Nebraska. The only place you can go Christmas tree hunting is on a tree farm. It sure beats going to Lowes or Home Depot though. Off we went, the day after Thanksgiving. They give you this tall stick so you can see how tall your tree is. Once you have found the tree you want, you stick the red part up and the cutters are driving around and come cut it down for you.

We brought Chloe along of course and she was LOVING it. She was so excited and sniffing everything. The kids loved wandering through the trees and finding plenty of holes.

Here they are sitting in one of the holes they found. Avonlea thought that every time they saw a hole, they were supposed to sit in it. They had so much fun. After a while, Kimball got a little sick of us wandering around only to look at trees but don't worry, I'm sure he will start to see the fun in it someday.

We found our perfect Christmas tree and up goes the red stick and down goes the tree. Thank you Mr. Sawman

We got to ride in the wagon back to the barn.

ooooooh free hot coca? Don't mind if we do.....it's a good thing to, cause I forgot to make my mom's cinnamon rolls and hot coca.

They even netted it and roped it to the top of our car for us. Nice, real nice....although it does take some of the fun out of it.

We got it up that night but put the lights on and decorated it the next day. That's another thing I love. Getting all the ornaments out and remembering where we got them all. We give the kids an ornament each year to symbolize what they enjoy or something new in their lives.

What a cool chick huh
Speaking of cool, check our Zorrow...in the bathroom...filling up his tea cup. I love that kid

The next week, we took the kids to see Santa over at Outdoor World. It was Awesome. They turned it into a little wonderland for kids. They can play with remote controlled cars and make tree ornaments, and play at the shooting range and write letters to Santa...all while waiting in line to see the Jolly old Elf.

Avonlea doesn't look too sure about all this but she sat there...which is much more than Addie did at her age. That was also a precious picture but I like this one more.

That day was the first real snow so after we came home, the kids and I went outside and played and threw snowballs at daddy's window. It was such a memorable day. One of those that I always want to remember. If for no other reason than that, I am so glad I have a blog. I love going back and reading and looking at the pictures of our life. I know this is probably pretty boring for most people to read, but it is my journal....and I'm sharing it with the world.