Oh Christmas Tree

As I have mentioned in several of my previous posts, shortly after Nicholas and I were married, we sat down and created a list of traditions we wanted to have in our family. One of these traditions was to cut down our own Christmas tree rather than having a fake one or buying one from a Christmas tree lot. When we decided to make this a tradition, we didn't think it would be that hard to accomplish. We did a little research on tree farms, and one cold Decemeber afternoon, after we both had returned from work and school, we set out to find the perfect tree. We drove to a tree farm up in Ogden Canyon. It was dark when we arrived, and the ground was covered in several feet of snow. We hiked out to the Christmas trees with our ax and rope in hand. After looking for over an hour, we decided the trees were "inadequate"--in other words, pretty scrawny little things. We posed for a few make-believe pictures of us cutting down a tree (Sometime I may dig out a few of these and post them), and then drove back and purchased a beautifully shaped little tree from a tree lot in Bountiful. It was a lovely little tree, with even branches and a fresh pine scent; but, after flooding the tree stand and warping $200 worth of wrapped books from the BYU Bookstore which were lying under the tree, we gave up on the quaint tradition. The day after Christmas we bought ourselves a fake tree and used it for the next six years while we attended college and then medical school.

At the end of medical school, when we were preparing to move to Pennsylvania to complete our intern year of residency, we pulled out the tree and Nick agreed to let us sell it and set aside some money each year for a real tree. Since we couldn't locate a tree farm close enough to our Pennsylvania home to prove practical, we settled for a tree bought at a nearby tree lot. It was also a lovely little tree, and this time, we put down plastic under the tree stand and kept all "perishable" gifts out of reach so that when we flooded the tree stand (which we did) the damage was much more manageable. Our experience with this real tree was a positive one, and we vowed to never have a fake tree again.

Having a real tree, however, was not the original goal. The tradition was supposed to be cutting down our own real tree. So, not long after arriving in Minnesota I went to work to find a tree farm where we could finally cut down our own tree. Much to our delight, we found a tree farm not too far out of town with beautiful and reasonably priced trees. As a result, for the first time in our eight and a half years of marriage, we cut down our own Christmas tree. Hooray!! The tree farm workers looked at us a little strangely as we carried our two week old baby out onto the freezing tree lot, but hey, tradition is tradition, and this one was long overdue!

Here we are at the tree farm in front of the tree we picked,

and here are Dad and the kids working hard to cut it down.

Here are the kids stringing popcorn and cranberries for the tree,

decorating the tree,

and sitting in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve in their matching Christmas Jammies.