a Griswold family Christmas?

This will be our first Christmas ever being in our own house on Christmas morning since we've been married. We're both really excited to start our own Christmas morning traditions with our daughter like we both had growing up. And since it's our first, my husband had this idea, or a dream, as he put it this morning, to have an old fashioned family Christmas, including going to a tree farm to cut down our own tree. Neither of us had done this before, though I always grew up having a live tree every year, and used to be adamant that I needed to have a real tree (after about three or four years of an artificial tree in recent years, though, I started re-thinking my predisposition for live trees and recognized the benefits of a perfect looking, non-sticky, no-standing-out-in-the-cold-to-find-it kind of tree). The last few weeks as we've been discussing this, I've been skeptical, both about the prospect of having a really heavy real tree for our daughter to pull down on herself and also with the whole process of going out in the cold to find a tree we agree on, having my husband cut it down, and then dragging it back to the parking lot....all with a not quite two year old in tow.

Yesterday he informed me that he had taken the day off today, and this was the day we should go get our tree. I have to confess that I had a very doubtful attitude going into the whole day.... mostly afraid that we'd be cold, frustrated because we couldn't find a tree, arguing, and trying to juggle a cranky toddler as well. But I got up, put my long johns on (yeah, I actually have some, which I had to dig out of a trunk of clothes I haven't touched in years!) and a smile on my face, hoping for the best. We had a list of tree farms from the newspaper from a few weeks ago, and chose the closest one that was open on Fridays, which happened to be about a half hour away.

We woke up to a fresh coat of snow, to which my husband cried, "Yes! It's perfect!" All part of his dream.... It continued to snow lightly most of the morning while we were out....again, ideal for my husband. We gathered together everyone's warm clothes, a saw, the camera, the video camera, and some snacks for our little one, and were on our way.

All along I wasn't sure how we were going to tote our daughter throughout the aisles of trees--the snow is at least 6 inches deep, after all. I don't think our stroller is all-terrain! But when we arrived we found out that they provide you with a sled (a BIG sled!) with which to drag back your tree, so it was perfect for transporting a little tiny eskimo girl with short legs around, too!

We started out in the sections closest to the barn where we parked. We didn't want to venture too far, not knowing how our little one would fare out in the cold. But all of the good ones close by had already been taken and the ones left were pretty sparse. We wandered around there for awhile, retraced our steps because we dropped and lost our saw in the midst of picture taking, and after finding it, started on to another section. My husband decided to go on ahead without us, though, to scout things out, so we wouldn't have to drag her all over if there wasn't anything good, so she and I stayed where we were and played in the snow for a little bit.

After awhile he motioned us over and I dragged her to his section. When we reached him, he told me to get in the sled too and he'd drag us both. I told him it wouldn't be as easy as he thought, but he said it was no problem. Actually, it was easier than I thought it would be for him, and I had fun riding in the sled with my little girl--can't tell you the last time I'd been in a sled!

So he showed us the trees he found, and after much debate, we decided.

We were both a little nervous that it would be way too big for our living room, but it was the only one we found that wasn't sparse and had a nice shape and a straight trunk. We decided to go for it. There's not a lot of furniture in our living room anyway, because we don't use that room much, so we decided if it took up a lot of room, it wouldn't matter too much. The whole time, though, I was having visions of Clark Griswold's tree in Christmas Vacation, which, when they cut the ropes, broke the windows and caused all kinds of damage as it filled up their entire living room!

He cut the tree down without much problem--I thought it would be lots harder, but it didn't take but a minute. We put it on the sled and carried our little one back, as the tree needed the sled this time. They bound the tree for us and we were on our way. It didn't take as long as I thought, it wasn't as cold as I thought (I had my down filled "recess coat" on, which I bought for recess duty when I first started teaching and have only ever worn for recess because it's so darn hot to wear anywhere else, so I was toasty warm!), and our little one was soooooo happy the entire time. She loved the sled ride, loved playing in the snow, loved watching Mommy walking behind the sled....just loved it all.

So we had fun and fulfilled my husband's dream, all in one morning. A good ol' old fashioned family Christmas outing. A beautiful thing.

When we brought the tree inside (after naptime had begun, so as not to have a toddler running around while we did the hard parts), we found it was almost the exact height as our ceiling without the stand, so we had to cut off several inches from the top. After putting it in the stand we had to cut off even more to get the star to fit on top! When we cut the ropes we found that it was, indeed, very big, and it overwhelmed the room, but we trimmed some of the branches and it began to look better. As we put on the lights (ugh....the worst part of the day....I hate that part and definitely see a pre lit artificial tree somewhere in my future, but there were no tears involved, as there have been in previous years, and no arguments, either...just frustration), then the garland, and finally the decorations, it began to look more like a Christmas tree and less like a very large bush in our living room. I'm happy with the way it turned out. And of course it's the newest, hottest, toy in the house now for our little girl....I'm not looking forward to that battle every few minutes for the next two weeks. My nephew learned his colors when he was about my little one's age at Christmas time because he loved pointing to the Christmas lights. She's doing the very same thing, so I'm hoping it leads to her learning her colors, as well! You'll have to wait for the decorated tree pictures, though. We decided not to take any today. That'll be another fun post for some other day.

Now I'm in the mood to watch Christmas Vacation....and be thankful that ours didn't turn out like theirs!