Christmas tree

My friend, Carrie, told me that their family cuts down a tree every year for Christmas and I've ALWAYS wanted to do that. Since I've always lived in California that wasn't a realistic dream to fulfill. Since we live in AK though many people do this. I was very eager and passionate about experiencing cutting a REAL Christmas tree. To be honest we've always been one of those "fake" christmas tree family. By the way, pine scented candles do not smell like the real deal. Now I have both a real and fake tree and I love it!

So here's the story...we first had to get a tree permit. A friend got us one on base. Friday morning we set out to get our tree. We were on a time schedule because Jeff and the girls had to come home, eat lunch, and get ready for the Nutcracker by 1:30. We left our home at 9:30am. Pretty sure that was going to give us plenty of time. When we were driving we quickly realized our heater, radio, clock, seat heater were not working. The heater not working was a major problem because the windows got so foggy you couldn't see outside and ice was beginning to form on the inside of the window not to mention the snowy road conditions on top of all that. When we got to a different friend's home to help us figure out the problem, all that stuff started working again. We finally got to the tree site an hour and a half later, got out of the car and Levi threw up. So far things weren't working out if you can't tell. Remember we're in a time crunch. We spent the next 5 minutes finding and cutting down what we thought looked like the perfect tree. I was expecting that part to be the longest. I wanted a small tree, since we already had a fake one up, and we found what we liked and Jeff sawed it down in like a minute. He strapped it on top of the car and we were off.

The tree we fell in love with at first glance. Jeff is our hero. Look at him carry that huge thing. Okay so it wasn't THAT heavy, but the needles sure were razor sharp.
When we brought through the front door, I started laughing in disbelief. Remember that I mentioned I wanted a small tree. We brought it in our home and realized it was about 14 ft tall. It looked so small in the forest with all the other gigantic trees. We cut a few feet off and placed it in our dining room. I love it. We got done just in time for Jeff to take the girls to see the Nutcracker.

If that doesn't invite you to sit down w/ a good book and cup of hot chocolate, I don't know what else would.