This morning we bundled up nice and warm and headed out into the cold and frosty morning on the hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. We went to Hagg's Tree Farm - I went there as a kid and Matthew and I have been taking our kids there for a couple of years. Its a tradition for us to find our tree, and then go warm up in the big barn, petting the animals and picking out a few new Christmas tree ornaments. And that's exactly what we did this year!
When we got out of the car, we had this cute little fella to greet us:
We started wandering around, and it didn't take long before Rowan found an absolutely perfect tree!
Too bad it was about 10 sizes to small! There were lots of trees that looked perfect, until you saw the tops of them...I loved the quirky curvy one on this tree:
We would have needed a whole bunch of stars to top that tree in the middle:
It was fairly early in the day, so it was still really cold and frosty - making climbing the hills of the tree farm a bit perilous. But we stumbled upon cool patches of ice crystals at the top, so the hike was worth it:
We walked around for a long time, looking for that just right tree. Not finding it, we headed to the shed to get warm and plan our next attack:
Warm and recharged, we headed out again to renew our search. They had a great assortment of beautiful trees, but unfortunately, those ones were all about 5 feet too tall (we have ungodly short ceilings in our house, otherwise the sky would be the limit with our tree). Of the trees that were our size, we could not for the life of us find one that was well groomed or didn't have something wrong with it, like huge holes and dead patches. After a while, the cheer of the task started to wear off, with everyone stomping their boots in the icy mud, declaring that they were D.O.N.E. Fearing we wouldn't walk away with a tree, in desperation we decided on this tree here:
As you can see, its quite tall too - much taller than we needed. But it had apparently gone unpicked for quite a few years, and the tree farm had removed a bunch of the lower branches. Because of that, we thought we could just high stump it and have (voila!) the perfect tree. Since the tree was so tall, we had to look up at it and couldn't really see what the middle and top of the tree looked like up close. But we were all so tired that we just wanted to get this one and be done. Rowan was quite happy about that idea:
Matthew chopped it down, and we posed for a few pictures:
And off we went, hauling our prize down the hill to the car. The guys shook it and bailed it for us, and after it was tied to our roof we headed for the barn. We found an endless supply of hot chocolate, and Rowan made some new friends:
This guy was especially friendly - goats are so entertaining!
We had a great time in the barn, we picked out some new ornaments and the kids got a container of fudge (their Advent calendar had told them to expect a special surprise at the tree farm). The grueling tree hunt forgotten, everyone was happy and filled with the holiday spirit.
That bubble was burst (at least for me) once we got home and got the tree into its stand. Not having been able to look at the tree from eye level at the tree farm had hidden the ugly truth from us - this tree was incredibly scrawny and bare! I nearly started crying at its ugliness - I have always had full bushy Christmas trees before and this one had needles so sparse that I could see right through it to the wall behind. It was so NOT what I pictured our tree looking like! Seeing how upset I was, Matthew very kindly offered to pack everyone up and head to the tree lot down the street to get a new one, but at the thought of wasting all that money I sucked it up and soldiered on. We strung up the lights, put the ornaments on and, since it was his year, Kilian did the honors and put the star on top:
And you know, after we showered that ugly little tree with love, it really didn't look so bad after all. Especially once the lights were turned out, and all the could be seen was the soft glow of its twinkly lights:
In the end, scrawny Christmas trees are not what matter. What does matter is the memories I am making with my family, the fun we can have together, the support we give each other, and the love that we have than can make even an ugly little tree look like the most beautiful thing in the world. Moments like this are what its all about. ♥
When we got out of the car, we had this cute little fella to greet us:
We started wandering around, and it didn't take long before Rowan found an absolutely perfect tree!
Too bad it was about 10 sizes to small! There were lots of trees that looked perfect, until you saw the tops of them...I loved the quirky curvy one on this tree:
We would have needed a whole bunch of stars to top that tree in the middle:
It was fairly early in the day, so it was still really cold and frosty - making climbing the hills of the tree farm a bit perilous. But we stumbled upon cool patches of ice crystals at the top, so the hike was worth it:
We walked around for a long time, looking for that just right tree. Not finding it, we headed to the shed to get warm and plan our next attack:
Warm and recharged, we headed out again to renew our search. They had a great assortment of beautiful trees, but unfortunately, those ones were all about 5 feet too tall (we have ungodly short ceilings in our house, otherwise the sky would be the limit with our tree). Of the trees that were our size, we could not for the life of us find one that was well groomed or didn't have something wrong with it, like huge holes and dead patches. After a while, the cheer of the task started to wear off, with everyone stomping their boots in the icy mud, declaring that they were D.O.N.E. Fearing we wouldn't walk away with a tree, in desperation we decided on this tree here:
As you can see, its quite tall too - much taller than we needed. But it had apparently gone unpicked for quite a few years, and the tree farm had removed a bunch of the lower branches. Because of that, we thought we could just high stump it and have (voila!) the perfect tree. Since the tree was so tall, we had to look up at it and couldn't really see what the middle and top of the tree looked like up close. But we were all so tired that we just wanted to get this one and be done. Rowan was quite happy about that idea:
Matthew chopped it down, and we posed for a few pictures:
And off we went, hauling our prize down the hill to the car. The guys shook it and bailed it for us, and after it was tied to our roof we headed for the barn. We found an endless supply of hot chocolate, and Rowan made some new friends:
This guy was especially friendly - goats are so entertaining!
We had a great time in the barn, we picked out some new ornaments and the kids got a container of fudge (their Advent calendar had told them to expect a special surprise at the tree farm). The grueling tree hunt forgotten, everyone was happy and filled with the holiday spirit.
That bubble was burst (at least for me) once we got home and got the tree into its stand. Not having been able to look at the tree from eye level at the tree farm had hidden the ugly truth from us - this tree was incredibly scrawny and bare! I nearly started crying at its ugliness - I have always had full bushy Christmas trees before and this one had needles so sparse that I could see right through it to the wall behind. It was so NOT what I pictured our tree looking like! Seeing how upset I was, Matthew very kindly offered to pack everyone up and head to the tree lot down the street to get a new one, but at the thought of wasting all that money I sucked it up and soldiered on. We strung up the lights, put the ornaments on and, since it was his year, Kilian did the honors and put the star on top:
And you know, after we showered that ugly little tree with love, it really didn't look so bad after all. Especially once the lights were turned out, and all the could be seen was the soft glow of its twinkly lights:
In the end, scrawny Christmas trees are not what matter. What does matter is the memories I am making with my family, the fun we can have together, the support we give each other, and the love that we have than can make even an ugly little tree look like the most beautiful thing in the world. Moments like this are what its all about. ♥