Chop, Chop, Timber!

 One of my favorite holiday memories of living in Seattle was driving to a tree farm to cut down our own Christmas tree.  I loved tromping through the rows, hunting for The Tree, sawing it down, hauling it back, watching them shake and bundle it in one of those cool machines, followed by hot cocoa or cider around a roaring bonfire.  It was magical and absolutely the quintessential tree-chopping experience. 

I've really wanted to create such memories with our kids but usually it's too cold and there aren't really any tree farms nearby.  So we go to Lowe's, shiver in our winter gear, and point to any random tree (they all look similar when it's 0 degrees).  It's just not the same.  So with this year being so mild, we searched for options and found that the nearby garden center was offering tree-cutting at some of their nursery plots.

We went out on a sunny Saturday afternoon with our new friend Dieder from the garden center, and followed him to a neighborhood down the road.  It didn't exactly have the ambiance of the tree farms of my youth, but the kids did have fun running around and deciding which of the few trees left was The Tree for our house.

 We settled on one of the smaller-looking ones which was still a good 11-12 feet tall.  We got it roped onto the van, waved good-bye to Dieder and headed home, hoping we could fit it through the door and into the family room.