It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas....

The ground is covered in white this morning and it brings with it a renewed spirit of Christmas upon us. Although I don't like the slippery roads, the fresh snow gives an ambience that was lacking.

1 Day Ago...It is Sunday the 1st Sunday in Dec. It is our family tradition to go out to the Christmas Tree Farm and make that Journey through the forest of trees and find that special one "The Perfect Christmas Tree". After Church we stopped home briefly to change into some warmer clothes and headed over to the Tree Farm. Upon arrival the owner greets us and tells us that unfortunately they have met their quota for cutting trees and are no longer letting anyone cut their own. They do however have some pre-cuts that we can look through and buy. My heart sank in sadness as 1/2 the fun of getting the tree is frolicking through the forest and assessing the size, shape and overall beauty of each tree. I guess you could say "it's the Journey, not the destination" that has the most meaning to me. We decided to look over the ones that were pre-cut, however upon hearing the prices of $75 - $85 for firs and $5 foot for soft needle pines, Rob put the cabbosh on the expedition saying that if he was going to spend that much we would go get an artificial. The sentimental fool in me said "if we can't have a real tree than we might as well not have one". We ended up leaving the tree farm and heading home to assess our options, with a big dramatic sigh I exclaimed it was just like the story "the year w/0 a Santa Claus, except this would be the year w/0 a tree". I got on line and looked up tree farms and found an alternative. We formulated a game plan to go after Jaydin's dance party. At the party a friends mom told me about a family tree farm in Toddville, so when we got home we loaded up and headed to Toddville (15 mi. away) and low and behold Christmas had been saved! There was the forest of trees, waiting to be searched. With saw in hand and a smile on my face, we ventured out into the wilderness and ran up and down the rows, each picking out viable options. We also noted all the Charlie Brown trees we found, and secretly hoped they would grow big and someday find a home. We split up into teams and covered more area when all of a sudden (dramatic pause) off in the distance (dramatic pause) there it stood...the perfect tree. Eyes fixed on it we made our way over the river and through the woods...WAIT! That's a different story...focus! We hustled over to the tree and found it to be nice and full, good color, nice straight trunk, about 6-7 ft tall and a price tag of $20...yahoo! cut that baby down before anyone else comes along to claim it. The boys cut it down and drug it up to the entrance where the kind owners trimmed off some of the rough branches and shook out all of natures excess while we headed up to the garage to pay. At the garage we were greeted by a kind lady that had made 75 dozen homemade cookies and had hot chocolate for every customer to enjoy while they waited for their tree to be prepped for the ride home. Ahh, that's what I am talking about...Christmas spirit at it's best! Wahla! The finished product...isn't she a beauty? Look at her, showing off all of the special ornaments that represent all of our years and memories together as a family. Today.. (dramatic sigh) It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!