Sunday, December 7, 2008

It All Started With My Mother...

Growing up, my five sibling and I would go out every Christmas and chop down our own Christmas tree.  Some people find this odd.  Apparently, there are many city folks who actually go to a parking lot (be it at Home Depot, Albertson's, or wherever) and pick out their tree from a pile on the ground. 

Our first Christmas together, my husband brought me to Home Depot to pick out our Christmas tree and I was horrified, absolutely horrified.  "This is not Christmas-y at all!" I pouted.

So, every year now, we go and chop down a a real live tree with our little family...  I don't care how far we have to drive or how much more it might cost.  There is no way I can gulp down the thought of picking a half-dead tree out of the Home Depot parking lot.  (Okay, well one year I did compromise and settle with the Home Depot tree, but it just wasn't the same.)

This year we went to an amazing tree farm called Moon Mountain in Sonoma, CA.  We drove up a teeny-tiny winding little road to the top of this mountain and were able to see an amazing view of vineyards nestled into the hills and precarious looking vineyards sprawling up the sides of very steep mountain faces.

Of course, no family outing is complete without Mom and Dad (that's us!) arguing and baby sister crying and brother demanding a snack and everyone getting really frustrated and annoyed at some point.  Oh!  And hot apple cider and Christmas cookies...

All in all, we had a fun time.  At least for the first hour and a half, but after that, we were just pushing it.  Mental note for next year: Get in there and pick the tree right away and then allow for exploring and picture taking afterward instead of the other way around...

Don't worry, I don't knock all of you parking-lot-tree-gatherers, but it just isn't for me.





Photos by David Escalante

Stop on by David's blog for a few more photos...

4 comments:

The Montgomerys said...

It's so funny, you and Joe must be related or something because he is the same way :) We wanted to but it was $60 compared to $25 and couldn't pull it off :( I love the pictures so much. Caiden is looking like her mommma--sooooo cute!!! Love this :)
Love you

Mon

elisabeth. said...

we're definitely choppers...but this year i settled for a parking lot...i wasn't ready to do it without Dad.

elisabeth. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

We went out as kids into the bush with our dad to find a tree. These days I have a fake tree :(

Mostly because I hate vacuuming up all those needles!

Your photo's are fabulous!