Getting in the Spirit

Since it was such a nice day out yesterday, we decided to take advantage of it and go get our Christmas tree! We've done the tree hunting in 20 degrees in the past and it's just not fun. So when it's 60 out, I'll gladly take it and run with it! We thought of waiting until next weekend, but really, the weather at this time of year is such a toss up. We decided not to gamble and went while it was still nice outside.

We usually go to the same place for our tree, but since we moved, that place is quite a haul for us now. And to have a tree go across the city doesn't sound like much fun. We decided to go to a place within a few miles of the new house to see what it was like and figured it would be easier since it was so much closer.

Gabe's Dad joined us with their minivan so it ended up working out really well.

I can honestly say I don't remember ever being to a tree farm, so it was pretty cool to see all of the trees growing in rows like this: Most of the draw at this farm was cut-your-own trees. They provide a cart (to drag the tree to your car) and a saw for you as well. We opted not to cut our own as they did have some pre-cut trees. They were bringing the pre-cut ones by the truckload so you know they had to be fresh.

Before choosing our tree, Avery had to check out the Santa sleigh and reindeer they had. She loved sitting on the reindeer!

They also have a "live" nativity scene....yep, the sheep, donkey, and goat are all real animals....smells and all!

Close up of the donkey and goat-which took me awhile to figure out was real (the goat):

Gabe's Dad kept Avery over by the sleigh and reindeer while Gabe and I scoped out a tree. I have to say, we picked the first one that looked like it was tall....Gabe stood it up and I thought it looked pretty good. Then I held it and he thought the same. So he dragged it over to see how tall it was (they had a 10' candy cane measuring thing) and it was 9.5' tall-perfect!

They shook off the needles and bailed it up for us....and here is Gabe with his big tree he has always wanted:

Avery finally joined us and ran up to the tree like she was going to hug it:

And posed with Daddy:

We successfully got the tree home and set up in the stand. Now we just need to buy a few more strands of lights (we're used to maybe a 7' tree, not a 9.5' one!) and get it decorated and we'll be all set.

I also took some time this weekend getting our other decorations out as well so the house is feeling pretty Christmas-y right now! Love it!