Christmas Tree Hunting 2013

Last year, we (by that I mean Papa Bear) decided that we wanted to start the tradition of picking out our own Christmas tree, cutting it down, and making a day of it.  The place that we went to last year was wonderful and we chose to go there again this year. 

When we first arrived, we needed to get all of the kids into their snow suits since we had a snowstorm yesterday. This was an adventure within itself because we did this inside the van.

Then we hopped out and saw that Santa was sitting near the entrance to the tree farm! We had been hoping that he would be here again this year! I was surprised when all of the kids were willing to get their picture taken with him. When he asked what they wanted for Christmas, Little Bear said " A breifcase" and Pudge said "Presents!"

Then we started our trek. We had brought the infant sled along in the hopes that it would make our lives easier to have one child in a sled since we would likely have to alternate carrying Pudge and Pequeño.

The sled idea only worked for a few minutes before Pequeño decided that he didn't like it. So most of our trip uphill was filled with people "Aww!" ing at him while he had a tantrum in the sled.

We then put a face mask on him to see if that would help and it did for a while. Apparently he,like me, is not such a fan of the cold.

Once we got about 3/4 of the way up the hill, Pequeño decided that he couldn't take the sled anymore and started in major meltdown mode. We attempted to put Pudge in the sled which was even worse. So, the sled ended up hitching a ride on the tree cart while Papa and I both carried children uphill and Little Bear was free to run ahead of u (as long as he stayed on the open path where we could see him)

Once we got to the general area where the tree that we would want  would be, we let the kids start hunting for the tree. Here lays the problem. Little Bear and Papa were on the hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. This means that it had to be taller than papa (6'4") could reach, a certain kind of tree, triangular shaped, and without any noticeable holes. Our options were pretty limited with this criteria and we wondered around for what seemed like forever. The kids had a blast and Papa and I had a lot of fun watching them.

The view was gorgeous

and the kids started playing games in the snow

When we finally found the tree that we wanted, Papa had to walk down the hill a little bit to get the cart and saw from where we had left it  so the kids and I checked out some of the smaller trees.

I didn't realize that Pequeño's eyes are almost all of the way covered by his mask until looking at the picture later and this is the only one that I got of the three of them in the trees. whoops!

Then we joined Papa at the chosen tree to help cut it down.

As with last year, the boys wanted to help cut down the tree so they each got a chance to use the saw with Papa.

Pudge helping Papa cut down the tree

Little Bear's turn to help Papa 

While Little Bear was cutting down the tree with Papa, I heard Pudge say "Mmmm!" and turned to see him laying belly down and eating snow.

A few seconds later, Papa cursed. Uh-oh. The saw had broken halfway through the tree. So he had to walk back down the mountain (taking Pudge along with him) to get another saw. While he did that, Little Bear, Pequeño and I stayed with the tree and played games in the snow. Pequeño was very tired at this point and started whining so I put him inside my coat and sang him to sleep. Papa and Pudge came back a little bit later and the tree was quickly cut down.

The next adventure was getting the tree down the hill. At this point, Pequeño was awake and angry that he was while Pudge was upset because he didn't want to walk OR be carried OR ride in the sled. Having run out of options, we put him in the sled for the ride back down. All was well until we started walking down the hill. Then, the wheel broke on the cart. We were standing next to another group when this happened and they said to leave the cart and they would bring it down with them since we had our hands full . So Papa ended up sliding the tree down most of the hill and was then helped at the end by someone else while I carried an sleepy, whining child, pulled along a tantruming toddler in a sled, and had to keep reminding a another child to watch where he was going and to stay within my sight.

It was a LONG trip down.

When we got to the end, I took the kids to get hot chocolate and star shaped cookies while Papa went to get the car to put the tree on top.

Then we drove home to put the tree in the garage and change clothes before heading out to dinner at the same German restaurant that we went to last year. This tree finding trip took us THREE HOURS.