Pages

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Christmas Tree Adventures

Long time no post! It's been a busy couple months. Since camping in Shenandoah we also spent some time in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Which is several other posts by itself. Andrew's parents and grandparents came out for a couple days to see our house. Sadly, I had to work, but I got to spend the evenings visiting and hanging out. We've also done a lot of work outside, fixing up our yard for next spring and what seems like endless cleaning of our house.
Then, don't forget, Thanksgiving was already last week! It seems impossible that Andrew was gone for six months out of this year, and 2012 is almost over.
 
I am so thankful that my husband is home with me. And in our home, the holidays are in full swing. The day after Thanksgiving we did some shopping and went to get our Christmas tree.
We wound up at Carl and Dorothy Young's Christmas Tree Farm. I've talked about Young's before because they have awesome ice cream and Jersey Cows (so cute!).
 
 The set up was super simple, you park and head up to the front. Where a nice old gentleman explained the different types of trees and prices. We told him what we were looking for...Douglas Fir. He explained that they don't actually grow in Ohio and we'd have to explore Canaan Fir if we wanted to cut our own. They are almost identical. They gave us a sled and saw and a map of the farm.
For a 8 1/2 to 9 foot tree we had to go over the bridge and past grandma's house to the back 40. : )
Those were the baby firs, way too small for what we wanted. But adorable.
 
 It was a windy and chilly day, but beautiful. Walking through rows and rows of trees was wonderful...snow would have made it magical, but Andrew said snow would just make it difficult.
What a Grinch! : )
 After finding a few maybes...we found the one! Andrew actually found it, he's pretty good at tree picking.
 
 I made Andrew do all the work...because I had to take pictures. This is the first time we've ever cut our very own Christmas tree. It had to be documented!
 
 Manly Andrew after cutting the tree! See how tall the tree is. It almost dwarfs my 6'2" husband!
 
We got home and set the tree up right away, ate lunch and got to decorating. I'm going to show you all the little details first and the tree last! To build up anticipation...
 The lamp is from Target! Not exactly Christmas-y but we love it.
 
 We put greenery around in random places to make everything smell and look pretty.
 

Our table decor is pretty simple, we do have a pretty small table. 
 
We got some really cute ornaments from our camping trips several weeks ago. And I think we started a new family tradition. Ornaments from our travels...we might need a second tree.

And drumroll.....

Yes, Andrew is vaccuuming, and yes the Princess Diaries is on television. That's what we watched while decorating the tree, don't judge!
 
The tree is beautiful and smells wonderful! The only thing we need here in Ohio is snow, snow snow!