The great Christmas tree hunt

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed out on our traditional Christmas tree hunt. For the past four years we have found our tree at Bill's Berry Farm, which has a festive quaint country Christmas atmosphere and a large selection of trees. Bill's prices been growing increasingly more expensive each year, until this year we couldn't find a tree taller than me for less than $80. We left empty-handed and came home to eat pie and ponder. 

Live Christmas tree prices these days amount to sheer extortion! We really prefer to get our tree and decorate it the weekend right after Thanksgiving, and the smaller local tree stands don't set up shop till later. The only affordable option was Costco, which had 7 foot firs for $42, but we cringed from entering that fray on Black Friday. After some discussion and agonizing and internet-ing, we ordered a 7.5 foot fake tree on sale from Home Depot. I felt conflicted about it from the minute I clicked "place order." So much tradition surrounds the ritual of bundling up, going out, and searching around for that perfect, unique, fragrant tree, and I was instantly mourning the loss of the fun. And our fake tree was not even coming in the mail for seven business days! 

Mid-morning the next day (Saturday), Jeff's cousin Helen posted a picture of her family cutting their own Christmas tree up in the snowy Uinta mountains of Western Wyoming. I typed a wistful comment about how I wish we could find a real Christmas tree without bursting the bank, and in her reply, Helen introduced us to the USFS Christmas tree permit. A Google search told us that our very own Evergreen State does, in fact, sell Christmas tree permits for families to cut down their own Christmas trees in a national forest. This concept was completely foreign to me. I thought that national forests were completely off limits, especially for entire families tromping through the undergrowth off-trail carrying saws! But we were ALL IN--the permit cost a scant $5. Five dollars plus a couple gallons of gas for the drive? We were on the road within the hour. 

A quick intermission: I don't normally fall prey to Target's dollar section, but these hats stole my heart. Even Amber keeps hers on and is perpetually blinded by it. 

Everybody loves Jeff!

Pre-tree pie feast.

Friday, the day before we got our tree, we did put up the rest of our Christmas decorations, switching out the fall leaf garland for the evergreen garland with red bows and setting out the nativity scene, Christmas books, our stuffed Bumble snowmonster, and hanging the stockings. I also crafted some new Ginny-meets-Dobby decorations in honor of our Harry Potter year. This year we finished listening to all 7 Harry Potter books read on CD by Jim Dale. I think these baubles commemorate that milestone perfectly. Have a very Harry Christmas!

Back to the great Christmas tree hunt: We hit the road on Saturday just before lunch, pausing only to purchase our permit and a bow saw at the nearest vendor of USFS Christmas tree permits, which happened to be the Bi-Mart in Sunnyside. We got the very last permit and kept on driving west towards White Pass. The forecast called for snow up there, so the kids dressed thickly in their full snow regalia--snow pants, puffy coats, hats, gloves, and clunky boots. It was only 50 degrees down in the valley, and with flushed cheeks they started peeling off layers halfway to the mountains. We didn't end up driving to a high enough altitude for snow, and the kids were all a little bummed about that. Not me--our van is no snow mobile! We packed a lunch and ate it in the van on the 90 minute drive.

Rose's first top tooth had been hanging by a thread all week, and she started entertaining me with various flexi-toothed poses...

At last we arrived at a likely side road and pulled off of Highway 410, bouncing along the muddy gravel track in the minivan. Our Christmas tree pass came with a printed list of guidelines--basically, no cutting trees within 200 feet of certain roads and streams. We clambered out of the van and followed Jeff up a steep hill to look around. After about ten minutes of wandering and comparing trees, Jeff found the perfect tree. I managed to get everyone gathered around for a quick group picture before Jeff sawed it down. Jeff had been worried about hacking through a mountain-tough tree trunk for hours, but the only trees small enough to fit in our house had trunks no thicker than my arm, so it was like slicing butter to get the tree down.

While we were watching Jeff cut the tree down, the kids and I noticed lots of bear-patties. The clearing was a bear-bowel haven! Jeff mentioned that bears like to poop in the same place over and over, which suddenly made the tranquil whispering woods feel slightly menacing, like a bear was spying on us waiting for some privacy to use his latrine. We walked briskly back to the road, and thankfully nobody stepped in the scat on the way.

Maybe I'm overly emotional, but I feel so connected to our tree--we saw its original home! It seemed so happy growing there in the foothills of the mountains. I felt kind of bad for essentially killing the poor thing and roping it to the roof of our car for a long windy drive home.

Jeff, manfully carrying an entire tree--no big deal.

I was running around trying to take a few pictures, so Rose took over Amber-duty. She is the dearest big sister--I love how she automatically looks out for Amber.

That hat! No wonder Amber could barely walk.

Amber watched in fascination while Jeff started strapping the tree to the roof rack...until the rope came sailing over the top and whacked her in the head! Poor girl didn't know what hit her. I took her to play in the trees with the rest of us while Jeff exercised his knot-knowledge.

It was so peaceful out there in the trees. I love watching my kids play in nature, and every time we go to the mountains I dream of living in a cabin in the middle of the woods. Nature is the best playground! I wish it was closer to our house!

Success!

The drive home was eventful. The first time we accelerated past 30 mph, the tree had liftoff. We had the sun roof's sliding cover open so we could check on it, and I saw the trunk catch some serious air. We ended up pulling over twice for long periods of time while Jeff cinched and knotted our 50 foot length of rope ever tighter to keep the tree on the roof. At last we reached trusty ole highway 82 and it was a straight shot 50 miles back home. Our drive home took us well over two hours, with all the stops and the slower overall speed we had to adopt to keep ahold of our Christmas tree. During one of the stops, Rose's tooth fell out of her mouth at last. She proudly clutched it for about 15 minutes before losing it somewhere in the cavernous depths of the van. I assured her that the tooth fairy would still come; it just might take a little while longer than usual. Every tooth fairy likes a time cushion, and I plumped mine up nice and plush. It only took me three days to deliver the dollar this time (with Rose reminding me relentlessly).

For the remainder of the drive home, we listened to Christmas music louder and louder to drown out the veritable tri-child wrestling match that was going on in the back seat. At last we made it home and after some trimming, our very own living $5 Christmas tree was standing in the family room.

Goodbye, babyhood. Sniff.

Jeff expertly lined the thin branches with lights, and then we hesitantly started hanging ornaments. Those long whippy branches were surprisingly strong--a truly hardy little mountain tree! We still only hung a fraction of our ornaments though, mostly because there were fewer branches to hang them on! We hung 20 sparkly plastic snowflakes, red baubles, our paper Elf Yourself ornaments that I made last year, Jeff's fleur de lis ornament, and our porcelain Nauvoo Temple ornament, which stood on top of our wedding cake 10 years ago. I love the simplicity of this little tree. It has just enough lights and ornaments to make it pretty. It may not be a traditional triangular fir with 1500 tips, but what it lacks in branches it makes up for in character!

After it was all decorated, we realized that it would have made more sense to cut off that top part and leave more trunk on the bottom of the tree. In fact, looking from outside in through the window it looks like we have a short squat tree with a giant brightly-lit cross jammed on top. Christmas is about Jesus Christ's birth, not his death! On-the-job learning is the best.

I have dreams of taking kids at Christmas pictures in the dark room in front of the lit tree, but so far I've only captured Amber. I'm waiting for Jay to recover from the last bout of photography before I rope him into posing for more. There's plenty of time.

It took a few days of constant reminders, but Amber seems to have learned to be gentle with our little Christmas tree. She still rearranges the ornaments daily, but at least she doesn't throw the baubles or yank on the branches or shake the tree anymore.

Oh, Christmas tree.