Tree cutting, tree trimming--Dec. 7

Yesterday was the traditional Harper Family tromp out into the woods to get a tree day. Cory and I counted and this was the 9th time we've done it, although I did miss one year right after Ruby was born.
This year was a year to be remembered (or maybe forgotten?? HA!), because we laughed, we cried (well, just me & Ruby), we ate, we went potty (in three different locations) and we saved the day (well, just Cory). And, oh yeah, we got ourselves a Christmas tree.

Let's show some photos before everything started to go south. But, in case you don't like suspense, the story does redeem itself.

The story starts out like this: I reallllly should have double checked everyone's "equipment." It's been very chilly around these parts, and the snow is pretty but it's a little different to play in the snow while conditions are so downright frigid. I told the girls to wear two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, but it appears that Mom's directions have once again fallen on deaf ears. Scout wore footless tights and yoga pants, and one pair of socks... but Ruby wore nylon tights, leggings and NO additional socks. Top that with the fact that Ruby's boots are slightly too big and her snow pants weren't pulled down all the way, and it was a disaster. About 5 minutes into our "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" (after a 1.5 hour drive in which Scout frequently asked, "Are we there yet?"), Ruby lost her boot in the snow... when we recovered it, she'd already stepped in the snow in her nearly naked nylon-covered foot, and managed to repeat this snow boot disappearance act twice more before concluding VERY LOUDLY that she was freezing and wanted to go home. Cory & I looked at one another more than once saying, "Are YOU having fun out here???"

After about 15 minutes of him carrying a crying Ruby as he scouted for the perfect tree, he gave up and told us he was going to get her back to the truck as quickly as possible, and we should just follow his tracks. Scout, on the other hand, was delighted by the waist-deep snow and the tumbling, fumbling walking that it produced. It took us a lot longer than expected to return to the truck (also due to a 6-year-old's potty break in a cluster of lodgepole pines--quite an impressive feat, I might add, she managed to undress and get her snow bibs off and not, um, "hit" anything), and when I felt we'd gone far enough and I'd fallen enough, I told Scout to just head down this hill because I at least knew that the road was down thatta way. Geesh, got there just in time for Cory to be seen pulling the truck away (he swears he was just trying to get a better vantage point to see us... yeah, sure, likely story! HA!). Anyway, all throughout this ordeal, Scout is happy as a clam, I'm just confused (Why do we do this every year???), and by the time we get to the truck, I see that Ruby isn't bawling her head off anymore. Successs??? Maybe??? Well, we still don't have a tree, so Cory tells me to just hang out in the truck with the girls and feed them lunch while he goes off alone to hunt down The Tree. About twenty minutes later (and after I'd managed to get the girls some food, get Ruby out of her wet tights, and set up the all-saving DVD player), Cory returns with the cutest little Fraser Fir only to see a truck behind us in the parking lot start fish-tailing into a stand of trees. Lucky for everyone involved, Cory's got a tow strap and he offers to help these guys out of their predicament. With the help of at least 10 other people all in the parking lot for the same reason as us, the group figures out a plan to get these folks out, and then Cory gets the truck into position and VROOM--our truck helps pull this Expedition out of this snow bank/tree cluster and Cory is a HERO! And that is the story of how TREE DAY WAS REDEEMED! Whew. Could you even follow that??

All those photos are of the predicament that the red Expedition was in, and you can see the tow strap. Cory was able to make it all look very easy, and the family in the red SUV gave us cookies as a thank you.

Once we got home, it was "go time."

We had some fun, and it was quite an adventure of a day. The tree is up and the family is all warm and cozy inside our house. (And, I might add, we have 12 months to get our act together for the NEXT time we do this.)