Cutting Down the Tree

One of our favorite new traditions since we moved into a house is to go each year and cut down our own Christmas tree from a tree farm. We went last year and followed some signs to a local farm that was really nice – they gave you a saw and a cart so when you cut down your tree you could roll it back on the cart. Then while the man was getting the tree ready and helping Michael tie it to the roof of our car, the girl gave us a simple hand made ornament that her grandparents made for each family who came there. It was just really nice.

This year we went looking for that same farm, but didn’t see any signs for it so we followed some other signs to a different farm not far from there. When we picked up our saw at the entrance, Michael asked if they had anything to help get the tree back to the car, and the girl said, “We’re just a farm, we don’t have anything like that.” That’s fine – I was thinking that the carts provided by the other farm were just a nice convenience. We had a walk quite a ways to find any kind of selection of decent trees, since the ones closest to the farm had been cut. When we found one, down a hill and near a little pond, it started to snow. The boys had fun running around and playing little games, and the older ones each took turns helping us saw. We finally got the tree cut down, but by then Courtland and Isaac were both quite cold and tired, and both were crying and refused to walk. The tree was big enough that it would be difficult for one person to carry it, so we were in the slow process of carrying two small crying children a little ways up the hill and setting them in the grass, going back and carrying the tree to where the boys were waiting, and repeating the process. Luckily, a kind family stopped and the man helped Michael carry the tree all the way back to the barn, while I got the boys back. The young man who wrapped up the tree for us was tall and quite large, and I chuckled a bit when he picked it up easily and carried it over to our car without any help. Maybe we need to start working on a farm so we can build up our muscles for carrying next year’s Christmas tree. I do think, though, that we will try to find that first farm with the carts next year – until our smallest ones are large enough to stay warm and walk or our biggest ones are large enough to really be helpful in carrying the tree, a cart would be helpful.

Even though it was a bit of an adventure this year, it’s still lots of fun to go and pick out our very own tree, and it’s also nice that a freshly cut tree stays green longer. (I’m glad that there’s also a Christmas tree farm in north county San Diego, so when we move there we can keep up this fun little tradition).