Brent and I have been married for almost 10 years. That means this Christmas will be our tenth one together. It is so much fun to think about that. We don’t have a lot of traditions established yet. Mostly because we just did whatever was going on with our families and our friends. We figured that once we have a kiddo, we would start establishing some. The one thing we did start was going Christmas tree hunting in the mountains. We would maybe grab some hot chocolate, a saw, some snow shoes (depending on where we were going), and then head to the mountains. Various people have tagged along in the past and it always makes for a great way to start the season.
We would come back, decorate the tree and put some lights up outside. Then the day would be finished by wandering the streets of Bozeman at the annual Christmas Stroll. It was one of my favorite things to start off the season. When we moved last year, we wanted to keep the tree hunting tradition alive. We headed up towards Mt. Hood. We drove around not having a clue where to go and ended up finding an unmarked road. We drove up, snapped a family picture, and then started climbing around fallen trees that were so big I had to climb up on them and then slid off. I couldn’t put my arms even half way around some of those trees. We found a tree and headed down the mountain.
We had fun last year, but didn’t really want to just drive around aimlessly again this year. I started asking people where they cut down their trees and most people didn’t or they had property that they went to. I was striking out. I asked one last family and they knew a place. We decided that we would most likely go the following Sunday. I was excited. The day before we discovered that our versions of Christmas tree hunting were different. They always went to a tree farm. I was disappointed, but I probably should have clarified. We didn’t have time to try and figure out where to drive now, so we just went to that tree farm they suggested.
We still had fun and Elijah loved being able to run around all the trees. It was slightly chilly, but it made for some fun pictures. It also gave me a desire to do a portrait session of some kind at the tree farm. I have seen a few of these, but this made me really want to do one. I am looking forward to hopefully being able to do at least one this holiday season. Since we were spending way more money on a tree than I was used to, I wanted to make sure it was the perfect tree. I am pretty sure that we looked at every tree on the lot until I found the right one. I wanted it to be a full beautiful tree. I wanted it to be bright green and the prettiest tree that I will ever have.
We found the right one and Elijah started at Brent cutting it down confused at what was happening. He loved watching his dad carry the tree. As soon as we had taken it out of the area, he started crying. I don’t know why taking it closer to our car upset him so. I don’t think he really understood that it was coming come with us. Poor little man. We brought it home, decorated it and are now enjoying our perfect Christmas tree farm tree. Now, I plan on going back to the mountains next year, because the experience wasn’t the same.
What is your Christmas tree tradition? Do you go to the mountains, a tree lot or a tree farm? OR are you one of those people with a fake tree? Ha.
It doesn’t really bother me if others have a fake tree. I see the appeal of it, I just want a real tree in my house.
