Oh Christmas Tree, version 4.0

For the 4th year in a row, we headed out to the farm to cut down our Christmas tree. This is one of my very favorite traditions that we started back in 2008. Some things were more fun this year (like the fact that our kids are older and remember and love this tradition as much as I do), and some things were not quite as fun (like a cold front blowing in and us being completely under dressed.) Ah, the memories.

When we left out house, it was about 70 degrees. The kids were in shots and t-shirts, and in hindsight, that really is a little crazy since we were going in the afternoon, and it was pretty cloudy and rainy. I knew a cold front was headed our way, but I thought we had a few days left before it arrived. I was wrong. When we arrived at the farm, it was 53 outside! We were 30 minutes away from the nearest wal-mart. Dewberry Farm has a little gift shop, so I ran in there, fully prepared for all of us to sport some Dewberry Farm sweatshirts (oh, how I prayed they sold something like that!) The sweetest employee had an even better idea. They have a huge pile of lost and found jackets, and it only took a little digging to find one for each of the kids. Luckily Derek had thought to bring his jacket, so he and I took turns with that one.

Of course, while the kids were running around and playing, it really wasn’t too bad for them. They love to play on all the things at Dewberry Farm! Unfortunately, it had rained that morning, and there was more rain in the forecast so all of the extra fun stuff (ziplines, huge slide, bikes, and huge bouncy pillow things) were all closed. The disappointment really didn’t last long, thankfully. One of my children sometimes has a hard time adapting if things don’t go the way he was expecting..no naming names, of course.

These big spinning and swinging balls are always a huge hit.

And so is are the rope swings, which Camryn was able to play on for the first time.  She is such a big girl!

There is the big playground,

the big black tubes,

This puzzle/maze thing,

And of course just flat out running like crazy.

Finally we convinced the kids to stop playing long enough to take the ride out to the fields to pick our tree.  It was a chilly ride for Connor.

And a very serious time for Camryn (her seriousness was calling for me to turn it to black and white.)  Last year she was pretty terrified on the wagon ride.  This year she sat like such a big girl.  Yet another example of how much she is growing up!

Once we got to the field, Logan discovered this little tiny tree on the ground, and they let him take it home.  It totally made his day.  In fact, that little tree is now in a mason jar of water and decorated with a few ornaments.  It has a special note under it that reads “Dear Santa Claus, put Logan’s presents undr the litl tree.”  So cute.  I love how you can tell exactly where he stopped asking me how to spell the words.  I love first grade phonetic spelling.

The kids were fine with the cold temperature when they were running around and playing like crazy.  But out in the open field, it was cold!  One of my children (not naming any names, of course) doesn’t ever, ever suffer quietly.  We quickly settled on a tree that is definitely not the prettiest or the biggest that we’ve ever had.  But it works.  (can you see how many of the trees are brown behind us?  The poor trees did not fare so well with the crazy drought we’ve had.  We pretty much chose this tree because it was green, even if it is only 6 ft. tall.  And, as we discovered once we got it home and into our stand, pretty darn lopsided.)

Derek had lots of little helpers cutting it down this year.

We took a little walk back to the front of the farm, stopping for a few pictures along the way.  The picture of sullen Connor in the second picture makes me laugh.

And now it feels like Christmas.  I love the family picture we take every year.

2 Replies to “Oh Christmas Tree, version 4.0”

  1. I loved getting to see all of your GORGEOUS pictures and read the stories. It was almost like I was there and not a billion, trillion miles away! Love and miss you guys! Hill

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *