The Hunt is Over

Every year the intrepid hunters venture into the woods, braving snow & winds, dismissing smaller, less perfect possibilities, hoping to find the perfect specimen to drag out of the woods, mount, and display in their homes.

Okay, so it's more like this:  Every year we and our BFFs venture to Kretzmer's tree farm, on a sunny day, to hunt down the perfect trees.  They have 8' ceilings and we have a cathedral ceiling, so our "perfect" trees are never the same tree.  This is what makes them the perfect tree hunting partners.  That plus they're our best friends, Whirling Dervish and their son, the Tank, are only 5 months apart, and Snuggle Bunny and the Princess are the kind of best friends that can spend a full 3-day weekend together and still be giggling at the end of it.

 Oh and the full shot from above has Computer Genius pulling SB on a sled, not dragging an animal out of the woods.

WD's arm is still in a sling, so he couldn't help with cutting down the tree this year.  He was disappointed, but still in relatively high spirits.  I told Ol' One Arm that his arm was making him look pregnant.  So he of course couldn't resist doing a belly rub.  Goof Ball. ;D

That's all of the pictures I have of the actual tree hunt, because the Princess's boots hadn't been waterproofed and she was starting to whine like only an 8yr old with cold, wet feet can whine.  I piggybacked her for the rest of the trip and needed both of my hands to do that.

When we got the tree home and stood it up, guess what we found?  Can you see it in there?

A Nest!  CG says that it's lucky to find a nest in your tree.  I say not so lucky for the bird, but hey, I'll go with it.  This is the third year in a row that we've found a nest in our tree.  We never see them while tree hunting, because our tree is always so tall that we're really just checking out shape and fullness.  There's probably some bird out there who's looking for my car to exact his revenge right now.

After securing the tree to the ceiling, so as not to wake up to a sideways tree, we strung the lights, wrapped the tree in popcorn garland, and began to pull out our ornaments one by one.

  We collect ornaments when we travel, so decorating the tree is always an exercise in 'Remember When.'  Remember when we went to Alaska and went on that Glacier hike?  Remember when we were up at the 1000 Islands and drove over to the lighthouses just to find that WD had fallen asleep in the car?

This cinderella coach is my absolute favorite ornament.  So much so, that I have to put it on a motorized spinner every year.  We were visiting my sister in LA and went to Disneyland.  I'm a huge coaster fanatic, but I was also pregnant, very pregnant, with SB.  So instead of riding coasters with the rest of the family, I went shopping.  Oh and that's the White House next to it, visited on a trip to my other sister.

And here's the tree in it's entirety.

Thanks for popping in and checking out our Christmas tree.  I'm linking this up to Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday.