The Christmas Tree Farm

When I was in highschool (and probably before, I just don't really remember.  My long-term memory is horrible) I would go with my dad to the Christmas tree farm and we would pick out a tree and cut it down ourselves.  We NEVER just got a tree from a stand/grocery store.  This was one of my favorite traditions and one I knew that I wanted to carry on with my own kids.  In fact, before Matt and I had Lorelai, we still went and cut down our own tree, we just took Lola as our "kid".  It's so much fun walking around and finding the perfect tree.  It's also the same price as going to the grocery store.  Our trees are usually around $40.  Until this year, Matt and I have gone to Hambrick's with Lola to pick out our tree. 

2007

2008

Lorelai was there - she just couldn't see anything!

This year I was so excited to take Lorelai!  We had tried to take pictures for our Christmas cards while we were in the mountains for Thanksgiving, but Lorelai was so sick that she just looked miserable and we didn't want to use one of those to represent her.  We decided to try and take a picture on the farm with all of the trees in the background!  I got my mom (Gigi) to come with us to click the shutter on the camera, and to get LL to look at her and smile.  We set up our camera on a tripod so that mom didn't even have to look through it!

It was freezing outside, so in addition to having Lorelai in her coat, we bundled her up in a blanket while we looked around.

I don't know what they did differently this year, but all of the trees looked awesome.  They all looked perfect, so we didn't even have to look around all too much to find the one we wanted.  Here's the one that we picked while it was still in the ground!

Matt lucked out and one of the guys that worked there drove by on a 4-wheeler right as we were picking out the tree, so Matt didn't have to cut it down!  That guy just pulled out his chainsaw and it was down in just a couple of seconds.  Much better than Matt having to use that flimsy saw and do it himself.  Plus, now that we don't have a truck, I didn't really know how we'd get it up to the shaking stand.  That guy just put it on the back of the 4-wheeler and drove it up there for us.  The guys tied it on the top for us and we really didn't have to do any work. 

Here's how it looks now that it's in our house!