Christmas Tree Hunting

Living in Idaho has allowed us to create some holiday traditions that we've wanted to do for quite some time. One of these traditions is heading up into the mountains to cut down our own Christmas tree. We did it last year and had a great time, so on Saturday November 28th we headed up in the nearby mountains looking for this years Christmas tree. This year we were able to spend an entire afternoon looking for a great tree. We drove a little farther than last year and found ourselves in the mountains on the way to Jackson Hole. I knew it had snowed a few days before Thanksgiving, but didn't expect us to go up high enough for snow to really be an issue. Luckily I packed hats and boots just in case, because we found ourselves, at times, walking around in about 6 inches of snow. Too bad I didn't pack gloves, the kids would have appreciated that. Oh well!

We tromped around in the snow looking for the perfect (or perfect enough) Christmas tree and just before the kids got too cold I took out the camera to take some pictures. I snapped about 5 pictures when the camera battery died. I was very disappointed that we couldn't take pictures, but we continued on regardless of the dead camera battery. Our first stop didn't produce any good trees so we continued up the road a ways. At our second stop we found a number of people out looking for trees which led us to believe we were in a good area. Kenny and I left the kids in the car for a few minutes while we searched nearby for a good tree. Surprisingly we found a few good trees and finally settled on one. We returned to the car where Kenny grabbed the saw and headed back to the tree with Ben and Sarah Kate. They cut the tree down and carried it to the car where Hannah was patiently waiting to see it. I'm pleased to say I think we found the perfect Christmas tree for this year. (Too bad I couldn't take any pictures of it.)

After finding our Christmas tree and loading it onto the top of our car, we decided to take a little drive. We were already at least half way to Jackson and we thought it would be a perfect time to see if Jackson had any Christmas lights. To our delight the main square in Jackson was all lit up with beautiful blue lights. The kids loved walking under all the lit up trees and they loved the elk antler arches that were also lit with beautiful blue lights. After about ten minutes we decided it was a little to cold outside so we wandered the shops a little and then headed back home. It was such a fun family outing that helped usher in the Christmas season.

A picture of the atler arches all lit up. (Obviously not taken from my camera.)

Sunday night Kenny set up our Christmas tree in the basement and strung lights all over it. We then decided to see what it would look like with purple ornaments. We were only going to put a few ornaments on to see what it looked like and then do the actual decorating of the tree the next day, but the kids were really enjoying themselves so we let them put all the ornaments on. The rest of the decorations came later so we actually got to decorate our tree twice.

Gracie putting on a purple ornament.

I couldn't get a good picture of Ben decorating the tree. Every time I'd try he'd just look at me and smile. So here's Ben's smile picture.

Sarah and Hannah decorating the tree.

I absolutely love the Christmas season and there's nothing better than having your own children to share it with. I'm so grateful for these memories. We are truly blessed.