Last Saturday, my family (parents, sister Rachel & brother-in-law Jase) and Tim & I embarked on a quest...a quest to find The Christmas Trees. We got permits to cut down our own Christmas trees this year, and though it ended up being a long day, it was completely worth it.
Our permits were for the Ashley National Forest, which is up by Duchesne and much further away than we initially thought, which contributed to the long day. None of us had ever cut down our own tree before, so we didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be a lot harder to find good trees that were less than fifteen feet tall and that were at least 200 feet from a road, river, or campsite than we anticipated. In the end, we had to slog through a food and a half of snow and walk across the frozen river that ran next to the road to find our trees, but we were successful! We cut down three trees, strapped them to the bed of the truck, and eventually made it home. We were wet and frozen (especially my dad, who was the unlucky one to step through the ice into the freezing river water) and exhausted, but like I said, I think it was worth it. Hiking through the snow-covered mountains reminded me of my grandparents' house in Wyoming, and in spite of the rough moments, it truly was a grand adventure.
As a side note, Jase was the champion of the day. Not only did he drive for hours and through snow, he also cut down the trees and fixed the chainsaw when the cord broke. He saved the day!
The Tree:
Now we have a fresh Christmas tree that has already filled our house with the elusive scent of pine. It definitely doesn't look like something from a Christmas tree farm--its branches are tangled and stick out at odd angles, it's lopsided in places, and it's about ten inches too tall for our living room--but I love the natural look it has because of that. We were going to trim the top off, but I liked the way the top branch bent along the ceiling so we left it. Then I realized what it reminded me of: the Christmas trees in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. They're all bendy and curving and tall and spindly, just like our tree. So if anyone from Who-ville comes asking, we don't know anything about a missing Christmas tree. *wink wink*
I had to take a picture of our tree on my phone, so the quality is terrible, but you get an idea of what it looks like:
I tried to take a picture of the top so you could see how it bends:
You can just see the tiny crystal star dangling from the end of the very top branch.
After we finished decorating our tree last night, we started a new family tradition. We turned off all the lights except the lights on the tree and a few candles, including a candle pyramid from Germany, and read some Christmas stories and poems while drinking hot chocolate. It was lovely--so exactly what we needed to remind us why we love this holiday. A tiny break from our demanding lives to bask in the glow of our beautiful (and hard-won) tree.
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