In our house, December rolls around and it begins to feel a lot like Christmas. Every holiday season, we traverse down the road a mile or two to select a tree from the pre-cut selection that is available. I thought that maybe this year, our family should get all "Norman Rockwell". Time to cut down our first Christmas tree. My wife's family had done this once before (about 25 years ago) and she still harbors bad memories of that event. Apparently the weather was horrible that day and her Dad was given a rusty ax to cut down their craggy tree. Everyone argued, then became tired and cranky after dragging this special tree to the car and eventually home. I was determined to change this memory for her. I am pushing 40 now, yet have never cut down a Christmas Tree of my own (nor has my family). This is the year to do it and if we are lucky, the family can change my wife's feeling towards Christmas tree cutting.
After many an Internet search, I found the closest tree farm to our house. It was about 30 minutes away and did not have any outdoor lighting. My children get off the bus after 3:20 and it gets dark around 4:00 this time of year. It was crunch time! Everyone got off the bus and we quickly shifted into the family car and moved on to "The tree farm".
Upon arriving, the owners explained the tree-cutting program to us. This is the Balsam Fir section, the Frasier Fir section, etc. We grabbed our tarp and saw and were on our way to a piece of forgotten Americana. We found our tree and began to cut away. It only took about a minute to cut down this beauty (about 20 minutes earlier than my wife's early teenage memories). On the way down, the tree almost hit my son. Fortunately, he was agile enough to escape harm. We brought our tree in and had it shook (for $1 dollar) free of leaves and animals. Then were given some twine, and my 7 year old helped me tie the tree to the top of the car. We all ended up having a great time.
When we brought the tree home, my biggest worry was that it would turn into a Clark Griswold Christmas tree. I was half expecting to see a squirrel flying out of it and onto my kids. Thankfully, this did not happen. The entire process went smoothly. My wife commented that there is usually a carpet of pine needles on the ground of our living room, but there were hardly any this year. Talk about fresh! I guess a little bit of sawing and elbow grease can make for a cleaner and more traditional Christmas for us this year! Merry Christmas!!
Pictures: Cutting down our tree before the sun sets (no lights available), kids dragging the tree, rudimentary twine cutting knife, my son tying the tree to the car, and the final result of our adventure.
Check out the first Video: my oldest son (in the background) almost gets hit by the tree
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