O' Christmas Tree

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we loaded up with the family and headed up to the NC Mountains in search of the perfect Christmas Tree. 

 Chad's parents have gone to the mountains to a "choose-n-cut" for as long as I have known them.  Last year, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Maui (ahhh, perfect memories!) while the kids stayed with grandparents in NC.  While they were with Chad's parents last year, they were able to travel to the tree farm.  Meme and Pawpaw were lucky enough to go with all of their grandchildren last year.  This year, Carson wasn't able to go because of a birthday party but we added three in his place - myself, Chad and baby Sawyer. 

The last time I went to the mountains to a choose-n-cut, I was about four and rode with my Dad and we were going the get Christmas garland for my Mom's florist.  I think we got a tree too but that trip is a distant memory.  I love Christmas and I love a good tree.  We have been using an artificial, pre-lit tree for the past few years.  That nice tree is packed away in a storage unit so this was the perfect year to have a real tree.  

The weather had just started to get cold so it made for the perfect tree picking day!

 

All those trees!  This is a very small percentage of what this tree farm had grown.  Seeing all the trees cut on the sides of mountains on our way up gave me a little anxiety - but, the tree farmers assured me that if people didn't buy trees, they wouldn't be able to make a living.  It takes about 7 years to get the perfect Christmas tree...and to cut it down in just a few minutes....I felt guilty, but they sure do smell good!  The tree farm provided a brochure on the benefits of real trees vs. artificial and I admit, I felt a lot better after seeing all the pros!  It's a major market in NC too so we were supporting our home state.  

 

Half the fun of choosing the perfect tree was the ride up!  We were all bundled up for our trailer ride.

All these trees....now, to find the perfect one!

We jumped off the trailer and George and Cathy had found their perfect tree in about 0.5 seconds.  I've never made a decision, of any kind, that quickly.  Anxiety kicked in.  So many trees.  So many trees.  Seriously, SOOOO many trees.  How do I pick the perfect one?  Well, two wild boys running laps around the trees helped me decide rather quickly.  We did find the perfect tree - nice big limbs for heavy ornaments and no visible holes, a nice pointy top for my bow, and about 7 feet high.  The polite assistants helped chop that perfect tree down and we were back on our way! 

We did have time for a few family photos.  I love these.  Wish they were of the scratch-n-sniff variety!!

Here she is, our perfect tree!

The Webb Family Christmas tree, 2013

We made it back down the hill of trees, loaded the two trees into George and Cathy's car, loaded up on hot chocolate and cookies, warmed up and headed back down the mountain.  It was a great trip and a lot of fun for the kids.  We will probably use our artificial tree again next year - it's much safer with my fragile ornaments and mild wild boys - but, we'll probably need to go find a smaller version of the perfect tree.  It was so nice to have that real tree to help us celebrate the season.