A Christmas Tree Hunting We Go

Lotta sap, Clark.

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we hit the road for Elgin to choose our Christmas tree. Scott and I have always been a real tree kinda family. Well, that first two years, we had our sweet little fake tree while we were graduate students and didn’t have two nickels to rub together. By the way, we still have that tree!

For many years, while we were in Indy, we enjoyed fresh-off-the-truck-from-NC Fraser firs. Then, we moved to Texas and discovered the Salado Christmas Tree Farm. Sadly, it closed two years ago and our experience has never been the same.

I’m not sure we’ll go back to Elgin. The trees are beautiful, but pricey. Maybe next year we’ll just get it at Home Depot and then head to Burnet or Johnson City to enjoy the spectacular “Main Street Bethlehem” or the amazing lights. Who knows.

On to the day.

When we arrived it was a madhouse. There must’ve been 200+ cars. #notevenkidding Oh, and it was like 70 degrees. It’s weird to be tree shopping in your shorts and Christmas shirts. I digress. We found the tree pretty quickly and while I waited in line with Gianna, Scott took the kids over to the maze. They ran around like crazy people. Nobody wanted hot chocolate and people kept trying to steal our tree. I must’ve said a dozen times as I stood guard over our wrapped tree, “No, that one isn’t yours, it’s ours.” That’s how many people were on site!

A half hour later, we were paid and off to strap the tree to our van. But, not before snapping some photos.

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Here, the girls are freaked out because there’s a spider on the truck. LOL.

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I’m dying over that tongue on Gianna.

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We finally remembered to bring our own tie downs this year. Elgin is a good 45-minute drive from our house, so we didn’t want that sweet thing flying off at 65mph! Thanks for the photobomb, Gianna.

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We listened to Christmas music and sibling fights the whole way home. So we just cranked the music louder. This year, the tree hasn’t fallen and we consider that a win.

We decided to take the tree decorating a little slower here this year. We put the tree up and then just let her enjoy her new space. Then, lights were added and finally the ribbon, topper and ornaments a week or two later. I don’t think we’ve ever taken that long to pretty the tree up – ever – and it was quite nice. I might just do that again.

Here she is, in all her glory. I’ve wanted to add mesh ribbon and a little fancy to our tree for 18 years. This year, I finally did it. Pinterest was no help because all those tutorials are for fake trees, so I just winged it and did my own thing.

Excuse me, while I go inhale the sweet scent of pine needles. Tomorrow, a home tour!

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9 Comments

  1. Sherry on December 16, 2014 at 11:24 am

    Please Kathryn, tell me how you get your kids to smile at the camera and stand up straight and the list goes on and on. I can never get a photo of my kids all together smiling or at least not scowling, eye rolling, looking the other way, you get the drift and I only have three. Maybe that could be a how you did it post. Help a mom out!!
    Sherry

    • Kathryn on December 18, 2014 at 3:20 pm

      A future HDYDI – pinky promise.

  2. Claire on December 16, 2014 at 11:45 am

    I got a real kick out of seeing your daughter wearing shorts to go get the Christmas tree! Shorts and finding a Christmas tree are not usually things I think of as coinciding!

  3. Joanne on December 16, 2014 at 12:27 pm

    How did you get the tree tied to a van??? The first year we had a van – we wedged the tree in between the two kids and went with it. Every other year my husband has had to drive his work truck just to get it home!!!

    • Kathryn on December 18, 2014 at 3:20 pm

      We have the rack on top, so the tie downs were just on those and the tree was in a net. Good thing because we almost pulled into the garage with the tree on top!

  4. Mike Knox on December 16, 2014 at 12:46 pm

    We have had a “fake” tree for years but we let it go in the move. I thought it would be great fun to go pick out a real tree as a family this year. Not only were the kids disinterested, I definitely heard one of them say “a tree is a tree, Dad.” So much for making memories. 🙁 Probably back to a fake one next year.

  5. Beth (A Moms Life) on December 16, 2014 at 3:58 pm

    The tree is beautiful! I love the ribbon. I’ve always wanted to do that but just haven’t gotten around to it. Perhaps I should buy some now and put it with the decorations so I will remember to do it next year when we are decorating.

  6. claire in the UK on December 17, 2014 at 9:06 am

    What a lovely post and fabulous photos. I also want to know how you get your children to look so nice in photos. My darling daughter just pulls faces whenever there’s a camera around. Your tree looks awesome – all those presents wrapped already. I haven’t even bought half of mine! Thanks as always Kathryn for sharing. You are an inspiration!

  7. Verdina on December 17, 2014 at 9:55 am

    Love this! Your tree is BEAUTIFUL! You and your family are amazing!!!!

    God bless!
    V

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