Where the White Things Are: Mountain Magic

Saturday, December 2nd: we drove over to the White Pass area to find ourselves a hardy mountain Christmas tree. Snow was in the forecast and even though no snow was falling while we drove, eventually we started to see a few thin white patches on the ground. After about an hour and 45 minutes, we pulled over on a likely looking forest access road, bundled up, and commenced our tree-search! I love getting the USFS Christmas tree cutting pass because it feels like our one chance at an officially sanctioned free-form hike through the woods. Every other time we venture into the wild it seems as though we have to "keep to the path" in order to "preserve the delicate alpine ecosystem." I understand that, but it doesn't really feel like The Wild to me unless I'm free to roam (and even better, let the kids roam). Jeff struck out, and we all trailed after him sans-trail, climbing over logs and ducking under low branches the way mother nature intended.

In next to no time, Jeff had located a likely looking grove, and we admired the options, quickly agreeing on a particularly fine looking tree. Almost exactly when we chose our tree, it started snowing. The snowflakes got thicker and bigger until we were in a snowglobe of Christmas magic. It really doesn't get much better than standing in a remote evergreen glade in a beautiful snowfall, choosing a Christmas tree. My feelings toward snow have been shifting all over the place after last winter's endless cold white onslaught, but in the magical mountain moment, I forgave last winter and fell in love with snow all over again. One of the things I love most about snow is how quiet it is. Snow proves that it doesn't take noise to make a difference.

And what a difference! Within ten minutes, the world was white, and the snow kept coming. We had cut our Christmas tree but we couldn't leave yet! So we headed over to a nearby clearing to play in the snow. Jay, Amber, and Jeff had a snowball fight while Rose and I started working on a snowman. Here's where the venture lost some of its luster: Rose was in a cranky pants mood and she had about 1,000 meltdowns while trying to roll a snowball for our snowman. I talked her through it, demonstrated techniques, and eventually just left her alone with her frustration while I rolled the big bottom ball. Jeff stopped his snowball fight to roll the middle ball, and then I started a snowball for the head and handed it over to Rose. With a few more frustrations, she finally managed to finish the head-ball and we began adding details. It is rare for our entire family to be united in working toward a specific physical goal, and it was a good feeling to all be contributing to the snowman. He turned out well.

Our tree before it was cut. It looked much fuller out there in the forest surrounded by other evergreens. When we got it home, it looked so scrawny and we barely hung any ornaments because there were so few branches!

Pretty pine needles dusted with snow.

Manly man.

Helpful firstborn son.

Helpful big sister.

Happy AmBear in her natural habitat.

Walking the tree back to the car. We emerged from our forest ramble onto a road next door to our service road, and followed it back to our van.

I printed our Christmas cards too soon. I should've used this picture instead! I balanced the camera on a jagged tree stump, set the timer, and slip-slide-stumble-ran to my place. I still can't believe everyone actually looked at the right moment. No retake necessary!

We loaded everyone back into Vanna along with our fragrant little tree and drove home, with a quick stop at Costco for a late 2pm lunch on the way. We dropped our Christmas tree off at home and then immediately drove to Grandview, where three cousins were having a combined birthday celebration. Pizza, salad, cake, hugs, and lemonade, then back to Sunnyside. Since we were tired from our excursion to the mountains, we did something different for the annual Lighted Farm Implements Parade this year: we parked near the end of the parade line-up area half an hour before the start time and walked up and down the entire parade line for 20 minutes to see all of the awesome lights, then went home before the parade even started. Mercenary? Slightly. But all bets are off when you're dealing with an over-tired 3 year old and freezing fog.

We had the kids in bed by 7:15pm, and they fell asleep in record time while Jeff and I snuggled down for another episode of Star Trek Next Generation. That show is so familiar, it feels extra cozy at this time of year. Familiarity is one of the coziest parts about Christmas: familiar music, familiar decorations, familiar cookies, all carefully saved for this cozy happy month. We did not save Star Trek for December specifically, but it is still a nice addition to the Christmas Cozies.

Jay's yearly conjuring of a Patronus in the Gibbons' front yard. He loves their white lit stag Christmas decoration.

Grampa Dan snuggling with his two oldest granddaughters, Layne and Rose. Layne just turned five and Rose is almost seven.

On to the parade:

One of these years I will learn the names of all of this farm equipment and how it is used.

Hands-down parade favorite: the lighted port-a-potties. Christmas lights have the power to make even a nasty ole port-a-potty pretty.

Walking down the parade lineup. It felt like cheating to see the entire 90+ minute parade in ten minutes. Then we turned around and saw it all again on our way back to the car! Two parades in twenty minutes: not bad.

Things you miss when you don't watch the actual parade: this Grinch Christmas tree has a tiny car on the inside and it drives around in circles along the parade route. I only know this because of past years spent watching the parade the traditional way (aka freezing to death on the cement curbside). I always like this funny Christmas tree car. It wasn't worth wrangling Amber for two hours to see this year, but I did miss it a little all the same.

Amber's favorite was the lighted schoolbus, of course.

The essence of the Lighted Farm Implements Parade: the giant John Deere.

The local funeral home brought all four of its horsedrawn carriages, but this pair was my favorite. Their backs were six feet off the ground (eye level for me--an impressive feat!), and ever since Biscuit, the beloved part-draft horse of my childhood, I have had a soft spot for palominos.

{me with Biscuit, 20 years ago}

This display was really quite dazzling.

A lone horse and rider were decked out in Christmas lights. That's exactly the kind of thing I would have tried as a kid, if I'dve had access to a good battery pack.

Traditional Christmas parade family selfie.

Next up: decorating the tree.

We didn't get around to decorating our Christmas tree until Sunday evening after Amber's nap. We turned on the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and listened to that while decorating the tree. Once we were done decorating, we sat and did our best to listen to the rest of the speakers while the kids got louder and louder. I tried not to be annoyed but I kind of was. Well, we made it through and the parts we heard were good. And our tree turned out as well as we could have hoped for, every branch laden with multiple ornaments. There were only six levels--18 branches total--so each twig was well used. Sometimes I miss the more traditional triangular Noble Fir style Christmas tree, but I wouldn't trade that snow globe mountain magic for even the fluffiest, fullest, fragrant-est Noble Fir.