Oh Christmas Tree……

Most every year we get our Christmas tree at a little place in Fryeburg, Maine, called Westons.  They cut the trees fresh almost every day and it's always easy to find a beautifully shaped one.  Last year however, I remembered that our tree seemed dry and the ones that were cut here felt a bit dry as well, so this year we opted to head down to their tree grove to cut one down ourselves. We never realized that this was an option until my oldest daughter and her family did this last weekend.

When the kids were little we always cut our tree fresh.  I used to be very picky about our tree, so we would traipse around the grove for what felt like forever until the perfect tree would jump out at me.  We would then head inside for some hot mulled cider while we paid the bill.  That little tree place closed a number of years ago, which is why we stopped cutting down our own.

What you see on Ken's face is pure happiness.  Happy that it took me only a few minutes to find just the right tree instead of the anticipated hour.  Yes, I would have liked it to be bigger and fuller, but with our ever growing family, we need space to fit them all in the living room along with the tree..ha!  This is the first year that we have hunted for a tree without the kids.  It felt strange and a bit sad, but it was SOO cold, we didn't linger long enough to get too nostalgic.

After we got the tree into the stand to settle it's branches down before decorating, we headed out once again, this time to find winterberries.  Remember now, it was pretty darn cold and winterberries seem to like boggy areas that are not always easy to get to without getting pretty wet.  Here's Ken struggling not to fall knee deep into the barely frozen bog.

You know your man loves you when he will go to these lengths to get something that you want, when all the while you are snapping off pictures.  We weren't sure if picking berries like this on the side of the road was totally legal, so we didn't waste too much time here either.  The irony of it all…..I noticed a patch of them on the side of the pond right across our road….go figure..sheesh!

We had a fun adventure Saturday.  It felt different without children with us, but we made it fun and that's what counts in the end, right?

Have fun with your holiday decorating!