It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...finally!

It has taken a few extra weeks, but the elves have finally decided it was time to decorate around here. To really get into the swing of things (and much to my excitement), we decided to cut down a our Christmas tree from the nearby Pike National Forest. There were certain locations and tree measurements, winding dirt paths to follow, and oh, by the way, plan for about 4 hours (of daylight), but of course we knew better than that...

The Christmas Tree Hunt

Day 1
Last Sunday, after Lily's nap (FYI- she woke up at 2:30, we didn't head out until 3:00, the sun sets around 4:30), we headed out into the forest to search for the perfect tree. This turned out to be a little trickier than expected, but we persisted. The right-sized, right-shaped trees were scarce, some would say non-existent, but we persisted. The kids climbed giant rocks and we wandered around and explored until Lily's little legs couldn't take it anymore, and it got too cold to persist any longer. Day 1-  unsuccessful. Maybe they were right about planning for 4 hours...

Early on, when it all looks very promising

Hmmm, what about this one?

 

Lily realized that snow is cold & wet. She was not amused.

 

Rock climbing

 

Mark's down there somewhere scouting for a tree

Day 2
Mark wanted to make this a fun family adventure, so we let Wade play hooky from school and headed out in the morning, with plenty of daylight ahead of us. Mark had researched the area with topographical maps, brought the hiking backpack for Lily, and even packed the little pack in burner to make hot chocolate. We loaded Lily up into the pack, which she loved, gave Wade a walking stick and off we went. We crossed a frozen-solid marsh and trekked up and down hills. After only about an hour of searching, we found the perfect tree! It was a little tall, but, no worries, we could trim the bottom up. Plus it was a blue spruce to boot! The boys cut it down and afterwards we sat in the sun, enjoyed a snack and relished at the beauty of our tree. After we were fully nourished, we half-dragged, half-carried the tree back to a "main" road and Mark drove the car up. We uneventfully tied the tree to the roof and headed to a picnic spot to celebrate with hot chocolate. The kids had so much fun hiking (or in Lily's case, riding) around the forest, finding huge chunks of quartz and just being outside in general. Wade kept commenting on how it was such a beautiful day to be in the forest, and it really was.

Lily is a happy camper as long as she's not on the ground

Wade thought this very clear solid puddle was awesome

 

Cutting down the tree

 

Very proud of his kill

 

Snack time!

 

Mommy's turn with the kid pack

 

Hauling out the tree

 

Very proud of their tree

 

I just love this picture. This absolutely captures their relationship right now. Lily wants to be RIGHT THERE by Wade, and Wade is pretty much disgusted at the thought of that 

 

But... hot chocolate makes everyone happy

 

Photo courtesy of Wade

 

Wade's heart-shaped quartz

 

and his "Jesus star"

Putting up the tree
After we got home, Mark and I pulled the tree off the roof of the car, stood it up in the driveway, and IT WAS HUGE! Not wide, by any means, it was, in fact, a little scraggly. But it was about 12-13 feet tall. I wish I had had my camera when Mark stood it up, and gazed up at it- it was amazing. Plus, with my neighbor's laughter in the background, it just made the whole situation hilarious. I guess, compared to all the other super-tall, super-sparse trees in the forest, this one had looked a little different at the time. Oh well, it was ours and we were going to love it. We cut off a *few* feet and got it into the tree stand. Mark sprayed off the fine coat of dust it had acquired due to the dirt roads we had traveled to get it home, and once dry, we brought it inside where the kids and I decorated it. Lights proved to be a bit of a problem, what with the lack of branches and all, but the kids didn't notice and it makes Mark and I giggle every time we look at our version of a Charlie Brown tree.

Our tree!

 

It looks a little better from this angle. With the lights dimmed.