The Great Christmas Tree Hunt

It started with a whisper.

 Actually, with a suggestion from my mother in law.  We were talking about what to do for Thanksgiving. (what do you do?  Well, you eat, lots of food, duh) but she wanted to bring back a tradition her and Ryan did as a young family.  They would cut down their Christmas Tree every year on Thanksgiving.  I think my family did that once.  Usually, Dad would pile us Gentry kids into the Big B.Y.U van (it had previously held football players..my dad bought it from the church, so we were special, or at least my parents tried selling this idea to us as kids, because this van was large, blue and white and ugly and embarrassing to ride in)  and we would search the valley in every tree lot for the perfect tree.  It had to be tall, it had to be skinny, and it couldn't be bushy.  There had to be room between each branch so that the ornaments could hang down.  Sometimes the search would take hours.  At the end of the night, Dad would find his tree, and treat us troopers to hot chocolate.  So, I told my mother in law that I would love a real tree.

  The idea was to head out on Thanksgiving after our feast and get the trees..and then it morfed into a picnic (what?! people, you don't picnic on Thanksgiving, it's sacrilege)  and then it went to  our family and Mike's parents would go this last Saturday and get the trees for everyone that wanted one.

We headed up to Cedar City and beyond.  Into the mountains.  Up and up we drove.  As we climbed, the weather changed.  We started driving in slush, and then it was turning into a blizzard.  So, we turned around and found a spot outside of the blizzard.  And we started walking..or attempting to walk. All while being pelted by ice, it wasn't snow, no, it was ice. We followed dirt road (which was snow covered) up through the mountain and kept our eye out for a tree.  The thing is, looking for a tree on the mountain is deceiving.  You would find this beautiful shaped pine tree and think, EUREKA!  I FOUND MY TREE! And you would think, yes, finally, I can get out of the snow and warm up and we can get home...only to look at the tree, and inspect it, only to find that the back side was bare, as in no branches to be found!  Mother Nature and all her tricks. It took two and a half hours of hiking in pretty deep snow to find three trees.  Keep in mind that there were two women, and we each had our own ideas of a perfect tree, and we were not going to leave the mountain until we found our trees..and two husbands.  One who listens to his wife and just went a long with whatever she wanted..and one with his own ideas of a perfect tree and wouldn't listen to his wife..oh, that be mine. :)

Did I mention we brought our children?  And an extra set of children?  All of whom started complaining about the snow, and being cold, and tired and bored about twenty minutes into this search?  One child started about five minutes into the hunt.  And did I also mention that I was appointed the illustrious task of dragging a sled with my lazy boned three year old installed inside?  And who would not let anyone or anything else  reside with him in the sled? My seven year old had worn his old hiking boots (we live in St.George, we don't own snow gear, like snow boots.  We are lucky we have gloves and coats) and who told me before leaving that he liked the feel so of his toes being squished?  Yeah, I bet you can guess how much he loved that feeling after being in those shoes for about 20 minutes. There were tears. I felt like telling him, "I TOLD YOU SO" but I refrained, but I like to think that I am a mature mom.

 I saw my tree the minute we started, it was on the opposite side of the road, but no one heard me.  So, for an hour, a whole hour, we hiked through snow, and listened to the kids as they complained ever more loudly that they were wet, and tired and wanted to go HOME. and Mike and his dad kept disappearing in the woods, which you would think would be impossible, because it was all white!  But they did.   And you can't really hear, so when they shouted at you it wasn't like you were deliberately trying to ignore them..most of the time.  It wasn't like you had your mind on other things, like dragging a sled, keeping your eye out for a tree, watching five other children, and listening to your far off husband shouting at you in muffled tones, all while wearing wet sneakers and no hat! (see, no snow gear)

But finally, when we couldn't find any trees with a full set, they listened to me, sort of.  I took it upon myself to take the kids back to trucks to get warmed up and wait for the tree hunt to come it luminous end, when I glanced up, and saw my tree, again.  So, I told Sariah to take the three year old, who had decided he wanted to play in the snow by this time, back to the truck, and I had trudged up the side of the hill in knee deep snow to my tree and shouted at the top of lungs (what's going on) to the men folk to follow my foot steps.

By this time, Mike had already found a tree, which he deemed well enough (and alright, it was) but I had already waded through the snow, knee deep!  So, my father in law and mother in law followed my steps and took the tree I had spotted.  THANK YOU.  I begrudgingly admitted Mike's tree was alright for our house. Our trees didn't look tall enough for what we wanted, but we were sure we would make them work..

did I happen to mention that in between this, I had to race down the hill, and to the truck because the children thought it was a good idea to lock one of them out of the truck, causing the panic alarm to go off, I have never ran in snow.  I was surprised I didn't fall on my behind.  And my child, my little baby was screaming his head off?  YEP. And then had to walk back to make sure they had found the right tree, and then raced back to the kids..by then it was decided that kids could watch the ipad in our car, with the heater running, so I sat in the car with them.  WAITING.  It was the longest 15 minutes ever.  The hunt my friends was a success.

 I will never bring my children again. Or my husband.

He also has opinion on ornaments, and lights, and decor!  Who is this man?  Let the battle of the Christmas Decor begin.

(my tree does look pretty good, and fills my house with it's piney goodness smell.  My seven year old has taken it upon himself to water it, and touch it whenever he can. And it was too tall for our house, by like three feet.  I still think it's too tall...)