Getting the tree...

Does anyone else have traditions that... well...

aren't really that much fun??

But they're traditions...

and the kids are expecting it...

So you do it anyway????

We have one...

It's cutting down our own tree,

( think I've mentioned this before :))

on the day after Thanksgiving,

no matter the conditions...

and no matter how BLASTED COLD it is,

or how DEEP THE SNOW is that year...

There have been many years that I have used the "pregnancy" or "small baby" excuse...

but alas no more excuses for me...

so tree hunting we will go,

it's pretty much just a reminder of how out of shape I am...

since I have to stop every 10 steps in the thigh high snow for a breather.

(and that is after I pawned my little crying Lydia off on her sisters to pull on the sled)

This was how I felt...

I was basically a whiner because all the other girls... minus screaming Lydia were having quite a great time playing in the snow and trudging along.

At one point Jadyn enthusiastically said to me (after my 10th fall..)  "It's OK mom, I fall lots too, but you just get back up and keep going."

That's my girl.

I'm kind of exaggerating here, it wasn't THAT bad and it was quite fun to be up in the mountains searching with our good buddies the Carlsen's, who found their tree right off.

We weren't very picky either.

Shane just gave me an A... B... or C... choice and I think I picked... D.  And then asked if we could switch to E after he was half-way through the trunk. :)

(He said NO of course.)

 

Our tree ended up looking like our tree does every year...

A little bit sparse between branches.

And a little bit creepy to decorate...

talk about creepy... what's Tayler doing chillin' on top of the fireplace???

Shane hates putting on lights...

on the house or the tree.

So this year since he did the tree, and pretty well made it known that he would NOT be doing the house.

I did the house... all by myself!

Granted they don't even go from one end of the house to the other.

And they are those stupid LED lights that barely put any "light" out at all.

But they are up, and I lived to tell about it.

Now that everything is put together for Christmas our tree couldn't have been more perfect.

So yes the hunt was worth it.

And yes I will do it again next year.

Although I would prefer to tag it in the summer and just send Shane and the kids up to get it in the winter... now that's idea.  Maybe we could make it a TRADITION!