Over the Mountain From the Tree Farm We Go

Love the holidays especially traditions...we have quite a few traditions we enjoy with our family and searching tree farms for the perfect conifer is a new one.  We've had an artificial tree most of our marriage...except the second year, coincidentally our first Christmas in our first house.  We were so excited to bring home our freshly cut tree from a local North Dakota farm, but by Christmas we had more needles on the floor than on the tree.  I blame it on my huge pregnant belly and not being able to crawl under to water it.  Well fast forward 10 years later and we once again decided to bring home a fresh Christmas tree.  Last year's tree was nice, but this years tree is truly fabulous.  I am so in love with our tree this year (can you tell).

2000~first real tree, in our home on Minot AFB...113-2 Glacier Drive

(appropriately named)

We drove about 1 hour up the PA turnpike to the town of Lehighton, PA and visited the Tree Hill Farm.  The drive was beautiful and the pickings were more than plentiful.  We narrowed it down to a 7 foot Concolor Fir also know as a White Fir.  The trees branches are flat and needle-like with a blueish-green hue.  And best of all the tree smells like an orange.

We cherish the adventure of finding the tree just as much as bringing it home and decorating it.  Will and Ernie sawed the tree down and the kids pulled it to the shed where the tree experts shook, drilled a hole in the bottom for our (Marriage Saver Tree Stand), and wrapped it to prepare it for its journey to our home.

And I mean journey home....Ernie would agree with me when I say, I was a bit more than annoyed when he  followed Google maps down a road that was clearly marked, "travel at your own risk!"  We ended up going up and over the mountain, instead of through it, like on the turnpike.  The views were gorgeous, and in the end I was happy for the detour and apologized for my Mama bear attitude.

Once home we prepared it for our stand and Will did the honors of unwrapping the tree.  We strung the lights and enjoyed hanging our ornaments collected over the last 12 years together.  We collect ornaments on our many adventures and give the kids an ornament each year that signifies something about their life at that moment....a favorite activity, sport or adventure.  This year we went to see The Nutcracker performed live so Will received a Nutcracker and Josie Maria holding a nutcracker to remember this special time in our lives.  

If we're gonna go down memory lane here's a goodie from our past!

our first home....

If you look closely it says Lt. and Mrs. Carcamo!  Miss our days living on an Air Force Base.