Our Search for the Perfect Imperfect Tree

Last Year's Tree

I have always been an advocate of the artificial tree. I always put up the tree the weekend before Thanksgiving, and I always assumed a real tree wouldn't last that long. However, this year, the thought of putting up our 17 year old tree (pictured above) did not interest me. I was tired of the decorations and tired of the tree. If it weren't the kids, I would not even have put up this "pretty mom tree". Ba humbug! (There is still an artificial one in the basement that the children decorate. )

My "real tree" friends kept telling me that a fresh cut tree will definitely last until Christmas even if we cut it around Thanksgiving. OK. So, because I was so late to the party, a few days before Thanksgiving, I had to drive up to the forest service to pick up a permit to cut a tree down for the day after Thanksgiving. Here are a few pictures of our memorable tree cutting day:

 This one below loooves this hat. She wears it every where she goes. I finally had to ask her to take it off once in a while because it's getting weird.

 This was after about an hour and a half of searching. My son is antsy and needs to torture his sister by throwing a snowball:

 FINALLY, after about 2 hours. You'd think with a forest full of trees it wouldn't be that hard. A lot of these trees have one side since they grow so close to each other. I think we went around in circles. We are newbies to this; and you would've laughed in our faces at some of the trees we were considering in the beginning. Here's the tree:

Our tree this year. I ended up using about 10% of our decorations. They are mostly framed pictures I do of the kids each year. The other decorations were way too heavy.

I will post better pictures soon. I didn't bring out the tripod for this. Was our tree-cutting outing worth it? Definitely! It is an event I would love to make into tradition. And, I love our "Charlie Brown" tree. I love being able to see through to the trunk of the tree, and all the imperfections and character of a "right out of the forest tree".