Christmas: The Tree

*The next three or four posts will be about Christmas 2014 and the activities we did leading up to the big day.*

We do a good bit during the month of December to talk about Jesus’ birthday. One of those activities is getting a tree.

In years past, matt and I only had an artificial tree. We even had a few Christmas’ in there that we didn’t even put up a tree. It worked for us. Really. The whole thing isn’t about a tree. But I digress.

Last year we went up the mountain and got a tree and planned on doing it again for 2014.

(Turtle Dome. Do you see it?)

We didn’t make it all the way up to the top this year. There was just too much snow. Along the way, some friends came up behind us to get their tree too. They were great help when Matt had to drag the tree and load it, so we stuck around and help drag and load the one they picked out.

Up nine miles, putting chains on, picking a tree, cutting it, loading it, making our way down, taking chains off and back at the house took at total of four hours.

We had a total of three trees. One was for advent, the big tree and a small fake tree for the girls to play with.

We had the little play tree last year to help Ruby not touch or pull on the big one and it was great. This year, we helped teach Clara about not pulling on the big tree. The little tree had unbreakable ornaments on it. They could take them off, play with them, and put them back on. They did really well and left the big tree alone.

Our tree lasted a really long time and with very, very minimal needle drops. Everyone has greatly enjoyed all three trees and the meaningful ornaments on them. We can’t wait to head up the mountain for next year!