Finding the PERFECT Christmas tree

As Nelson tradition dictates, on one of the first few Saturdays after Thanksgiving we go up to the Tollgate area in the Blue Mountains, usually with our good friends, the Stocks. and find the PERFECT Christmas tree. The forest service sells permits for $7 and you can cut a tree down as big or as small as you want. With the 9-foot ceilings in our house, we like to get a really tall, full tree. Every year I think we won't ever be able to find a tree as beautiful as the year before's, but somehow we do. That is really a credit to Craig mostly. We'll be out hunting around in the woods and I'll say "This one looks good. We could just put it in the corner and hide that big hole in the back." Or "Let's just get this one--it will be fine and I'm too cold to keep looking." But Craig and the kids perservere and actually have a great time tromping around in the snow looking for just the right one.

Ashley insisted, early on, that she found the perfect tree! But we told her that we didn't believe that would quite fit in the house, even with 9-foot ceilings.


Some years there is so much snow in the Blue's that we are almost swimming, trying to get to the good trees. But this year was a little disappointing to the kids because there wasn't much, if any, snow really to play in. I think Carly was the most excited this year to go up to the snow. She's not old enough to remember that there's usually more snow so she was thrilled to play around in what was there.


The Stocks have a great tradition of trying to find the most unusual, crazy tree out there. Every year they come up with a good one that most people would just walk right by. Here are a few options they were deciding between.
Julie thought this could double as a chair and a Christmas tree:

Blake is inspecting this one to see if it will match the criteria for craziest tree ever.
(I'm dead serious--this is an example of what all of their trees have looked like).

But my favorite nominee was Dirk's--their 17 year old son. He found this tree and really wanted to cut it down and take it home. I thought the color was very unique. Afterall, it's not too often that you see a real-live, not painted ORANGE Christmas tree.


Meanwhile we kept looking for our tree as well. Here's Brad out hunting


and Carly found a good place to sit down and rest


and here's Blake and Brad with Grant Stock


In the end, our tree was discovered down off the road a little ways. Isn't it beautiful??


Brad and Blake took turns sawing it down



and then they counted the rings to see how old the tree was--can you tell it's age from their fingers??

(that's 17--if you can't tell)

Next week I'll post some pictures of the tree all decorated so you can see how beautiful it looks inside as well.