We hunted for a tree this weekend, and I'm sure glad we did it while the weather was nice. It is 11 degrees F today with a windchill of -15. Snow on the ground. Brrr!
But this weekend was lovely!
We went to lunch at the
Sugar Shack to get ready for the big tree hunt. The Sugar Shack is a little tiny greasy diner out in the middle of no where... You can sit at the bar, or you can sit at one of 3 tables. It's great! Great burgers. Great cocoa! Too many fries! Mmmm! On our way in we stopped and talked to an old cowboy. He told us that we better get our tree today, because cold weather was on it's way... he was right!
After lunch, we headed into the hills to find the perfect tree.
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| Em and John on a log |
We had a bad storm at the beginning of October, and though the snow was mostly gone, the damage to the forest was unmistakeable. There were huge slash piles, and trees down all over the place. Also, the brush seemed more tangled a tougher to walk through than usual.
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| Sydney crosses a creek |
We hunted high and low. And finally found the right tree!
John cut it down all by himself!
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| John - cutting down the tree - 10 years old! |
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| John and Sydney, hunting for our first tree in the Hills - John is 1 year old! |
Our tree is a little wonky and sparse, but I think it will be lovely. I just wish someone else would come put the lights on! Okay. I can do it! Today!
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| Emily and John carrying out the tree. |
Sydney told me it was our best year of tree hunting ever! Yay! I blogged about tree hunting in the past
here, and
here. We have made a lot of fun memories finding Charlie Brown Christmas trees in the Black Hills.
As we were looking for our tree, we laughed about the time we went tree hunting with some friends, a couple of years ago. Nathan was deployed over Christmas, and some friends generously offered to let the kids and I tag along with them and find our trees together. It was cold and snowy, and we only had 2 pairs of really good snow boots. I guess that's not true - Emily and John both had their own boots, but Hannah, Sydney, and I had only two pairs of boots between the three of us - we all wear about the same size shoe.
So,
one of us had to wear just regular boots - don't get me wrong - they were nice boots, just not good warm snow boots... We had to hike a ways to find our tree, through lots of snow. Did I mention it was cold? And the person with the regular boots started to get a little bit grouchy.
When it took a while to find juuuust the right tree, she got a lot grouchy. So as soon as we chose one, she cut down that tree fast, and pretty much ran back to the car with it, mostly carrying it on her own (which didn't help her mood) to the car, through the deep snow. (these trees are really very light, just sort of awkward to carry on your own.)
By the time the rest of us (our family and our friends' family) got back to the cars, she was in the suburban crying! Waaaa! So embarrassing for her, and for me, too! Our friends kept asking if she was okay, and I had to keep saying: "She's fine." "She'll be better in a few minutes..." Being (and having) a teenager is sometimes not easy! It's making me get a little choked up just thinking about it!
By the time we had all eaten some cookies and had some cocoa, she was just fine. And her feet were okay. So we went to the Sugar Shack for lunch and finished the day in better spirits.
We have 4 good pairs of snow boots, now, in size 6 1/2 - 7. And we've both grown up a little! I wonder if she and her companion have a little tree in their apartment?
