Another of our fun Christmas traditions happened just after Thanksgiving. We like to get our real Christmas tree as early as possible so we have a lot of time to enjoy it. We find that as long as we keep it well watered, our tree will stay looking green and lovely until New Year's even when we buy it right after Thanksgiving. (Side Note: It will inevitably lose a few needles when you have a toddler who likes to "touch" it frequently. Ha!) Actually, I'd argue waiting later to get the tree may mean we get a tree that has been cut down for a while and may have already dried out a lot and will not be as long lasting. We have a place just down the road from us that we have been going to for the last four years. Christmas trees (evergreen Frasier firs are the traditional "Christmas" tree) don't grow well except in higher elevations so we would need to drive up to the mountains to cut our own tree, but since we only live a few hours from the mountains, we are content to let someone else bring the trees to us. Eddie has developed a friendship with the guys who run this little tree selling business so he trust that they know what they are doing and that if we get our tree as soon as they bring them down from the mountains, we'll have a tree that hasn't really dried out and is in good shape to last the whole month of December. Our little trip to the tree farm has become a fun little tradition for us to take pictures with the boys and let them help pick out their tree. I think I will love comparing the pictures through the years of how the kids grow and change every year on these special trips.
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| This is a cute little family owned farm business. They do some light farming and raising livestock now, but they are more known for their holiday festivities (pumpkins and hayrides in the fall, Christmas trees and hayrides for Christmas, and strawberries in the Spring). |
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| Evan is "going west" in his little horse drawn wagon. |
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| Picture perfect. He's become quite the "expert" at picture posing through the years. |
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| Sweet Evan |
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| Brody was not so happy about sitting in the wagon. |
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| But he loved driving the tractor, of course. |
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| Oh my, does this kid love to drive! |
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| Checking out the Christmas lights adorning this old tractor. |
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| They are sporting some new shirts I bought them on sale at Janie & Jack. They are also reversible so it's like two shirts in one and also made the shirts thicker and warmer. I ordered them a size bigger for both so they'll get more wear out of them. That's good economic rules of shopping for growing boys: (1) buy on sale; (2) buy a size bigger; and (3) buy reversible or multiple purpose pieces if possible! |
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| Evan was being a wild man. |
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| Brody was being super clingy to mom and didn't want her to leave him even to take his picture. |
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| One of his many crying/whining/sad/mad faces. |
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| But he loves his big brother! |
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| And he loves to be the wild man too! |
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| This is as perfectly posed as it's going to get. |
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| Our traditional picture climbing fences. |
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| Cheese! |
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| We went in the morning so the sun was pretty bright. |
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| I love to capture them running through the trees. |
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| Our tree |
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| Daddy and his boys posing with our tree. |
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| They cooperated well for daddy. |
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| Not quite so well for Mommy. |
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| Ha! I'm not sure why Brody was covering his face. |
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| Evan likes to take our picture now so we may be in more shots. |
I wish we could have gone to cut down our tree this year but we just ran out of time and days of feeling good! We just got it on Wednesday and it has been dropping needles like crazy. Obviously it was cut down too long ago.
ReplyDeleteAnd I so feel your pain of trying to get half-decent pictures of your kids. They are at such a wiggly stage it's hard to get nice ones. But I realize the not so nicely posed pictures are more true to real life!
Great pictures of your beautiful family! I love the boys' shirts. I always get my kiddos clothes a little big too! They just grow so fast. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you, I ordered some clothes from Lolly Wolly Doodle for Addi and Karsyn for Christmas. Their stuff is way too cute! Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteHave I ever told you that I am extremely allergic to pine tree mold, so buying a fresh Christmas tree is 100% not an option and therefore, not part of my normal Christmas routine. Before my parents figured it out both my younger brother and I would get really really sick every December (there were a few years we ended up in the ER on Christmas eve) and would stay sick until the heat was turned off. The mold gets into the central heating system and grows and then gets blown all over the house. And all pine trees have mold, it's just a normal part of them. So anyway. That was a long explanation, but the summary is that we have an artificial tree and always will.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely looks fun getting a fresh one though!
I do think I remember your telling me this last year. This comment actually made me laugh because as the wife of a forester I have come to appreciate that Christmas trees aren't "pine trees" as people so often lump them. The traditional Christmas trees are Frasier fir trees that only grow in higher elevations with cooler temperatures. They have the perfect shape and full branches. We grow pine trees all over the state (many different varieties but primarily lob lolly pine or long leaf), but Frasier firs only in our mountains. Arizona may not grow Frasier firs at all though. Some people use cedar trees instead which I do not think look good as Christmas trees. Pine trees would not make very good Christmas trees unless you are going for the Charlie Brown look. Haha! So I wonder which types of trees you are actually allergic to. Frasier firs? Pine trees? Any trees that produce mold spores probably. I have no such issues so I love the smell of a fresh Christmas tree in the house. :-)
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