Tree Hunting

Grandma Lizzy & Anson hunt for the perfect tree.

Adam and Simon cut down our tree.

Adam and Anson pause for some tea.

Tia Melissa hams it up with Simon.

Tailgater! The boys are ready for coffee hour.

Anson reaches for the goods.

Love it!

Simon's hot chocolate moment.

For five Christmases in New Mexico we didn't have a tree-hunting tradition. One year we gathered yucca stalks, one year we gathered a century plant stalk, one year we bought a tree from the grocery store parking lot (this was the year I was 9 months pregnant in November) and the other two years we got a permit to cut one from the Gila National Forest, providing we only got a certain size and type. Every Christmas we've been in Grand Rapids, however, there's a tradition. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we head out to a local tree farm (those change, sometimes) and hunt for the perfect one for each household represented. The distance we drive, the cost of the tree, the number of families in attendance all change, but it's an event. After loading them up, we caravan back to one house at a time and set them up. A new tradition the boys especially appreciate is that "Grandma Lizzy" brings several thermoses of hot chocolate and a box or two of doughnuts for our "tailgater warm-up" after we've found all the trees. Such fun! And so we enter the Christmas season.

You have been sent 8 pictures.

DSCN8537.JPG
DSCN8544.JPG
DSCN8557.JPG
DSCN8570.JPG
DSCN8572.JPG
DSCN8573.JPG
DSCN8589.JPG
DSCN8607.JPG

These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/