Griswold's Christmas Adventure?

Chris and I both grew up cutting down trees for Christmas. We have continued that tradition every year since we've been married and we love it. We both grew up cutting down Virginia pines and so have continued with that as it's one of the only types you can cut around here locally. With each year the crop hasn't been as good and I have slowly begun to prefer a fir as their needles shed quite a good bit less.

So, this year we did some research and after finding loads of Christmas tree farms with fir trees priced well above our budget( apparently firs are more expensive than pines), Chris found a place, with no website, a home phone number with a man on the other end that said he had a ton of land in the middle of the Pisgah forest and just to come on up and look for a tree at the right price...hmmm, I wasn't to convinced and had visions of a Griswold Christmas tree adventure as we tramped through the forest on the side of the mountain looking for a tree.

Somehow, the idea of possible recreating Christmas Vacation was just what are good friends, The Burns, needed to finally convert to the tree cutting down side. So early one Saturday morning, we bundled up of kiddos and drove "boy and girl" cars up into the windy mountains to see if we could find a tree.

Well, the place was perfect. A simple but well-run, family Christmas tree farm with beautiful trees on the side of the mountain. The kids had a blast running up and down the mountain, picking out trees, and petting their bear of a dog. We both found trees that we loved and after a few hand saw swipes, gave in to their suggestion that we let them cut down the tree( this is the first time we hadn't cut it ourselves but we would have been there all day - those were some hard trees!!!) This turned out to be a great idea as the kiddos got to ride on big four wheelers and haul our tree down to get baled. Even Cohen and I hitched a ride with Cort and the "tree cutter" on the way back down.



the feeble attempt to cut it ourselves...
Cohen found one just his size...

4-wheeling it...
he was nice enough to take a picture of all of us before driving us back down...

We all had a picnic lunch basically in the family's front yard and then made our way back down the mountain in time to catch the not so fun second half of the Clemson game( don't we have great hubbies to chose a fun family outing over the game?)

Kate trying to keep Cohen from eating the grass...he thought it was a fun game...

Silly Girl...

We love our tree, I really think it's the prettiest we've ever had, though, as always, it's way bigger in our house than it seemed on the side of the mountain!!!

So, in the end, no real Griswold adventure but I say the beginning of a new yearly tradition..what do you say, Burns?