Snowy Fun

On Monday afternoon, my sister and four kids went to get a real Christmas tree. My sister lives in North Carolina, so we had been planning to go chop down our own tree for quite some time. Originally my husband was going to go with, but due to weather, we weren't able to go get it on Sunday when he could go. Not to be deterred, however, my sister and I decided that the two of us could conquer a tree--no problem. We went to the tree farm and there was one lone elderly gentleman there next to the ALREADY cut trees. I told him we wanted to cut our own. He looked at me like I was crazy. (Oh, yeah--it was about 10 below zero with a stiff wind) "Don't you just want to take one of these, it would be much easier, " he said. "No, we want to cut our own, can't we but our own?" "Well," he said, "you can, but it is awfully cold and there's no one to help you this late in the season." I asked the rest of my crew who were appalled that I would even for a second consider taking the easy way out and buying a precut tree. He also offered to let me cut one down right by the shed, but we wanted to trapes through the woods and find the "perfect" tree. I think I won him over though, and he was willing to let us go when he offered me a saw and I told him we had two in the van. He gave us directions to the main area to pick your own tree--about 1 1/2 miles away.

We left the only footprints in the 12+" of snow. My sister and the kids made snow angels. We found the "perfect" tree for us. We managed to get it home safely also!

Things I learned from our adventure:

1. Trees appear much larger in your living room than they do outdoors!--We had about 1/2 inch to spare!
2. Digital cameras are only good for about two pictures in subzero weather before they "freeze up"
3. Bare fingers are only good for about two pictures in subzero weather before they "freeze up"--in the future I am going to put thin gloves under my thick ones!
4. It is much more of a work out to find your tree in 12+inches of snow than in two inches!
5. Sled dogs have a tough job--trying to pull something through snow is tougher than it looks!
6. There is nothing like having a Christmas tree in your living room that you cut down yourself!!!