O Christmas Tree

Alexander looks around to see if there isn't a better tree while Mikel examines the backside of one I'd initially picked out.


Snow princess. I went to the trouble of packing snow pants, which we ended up not putting on the kids, but I forgot Anna's hat! I sacrificed mine.


Our winter dog. Shreve wears two coats of fur every day, and he was in snow heaven bouncing around the white forest. Here he is taking a break.


Mikel, with Alex and saw in hand, leaves one potential cluster of spruce trees in our quest for the perfect tree. We ended up settling just a bit, though it is a beautiful tree.


Mikel hauls it in. The tree trunk was on the skinny side, so it didn't take long to saw it down. In fact, I pretty much missed the photo. I've got one of him wrestling it down to the ground, but I thought that might be a bit embarrassing to post.


Believe it or not there are no Christmas tree farms out here! I guess with a million or so acres from which to choose in the Black Hills National Forest, why bother competing. So, we got a permit for $10, which allowed us to cut a tree as high as 20 feet, and packed up the family. Our snowy Saturday outing took about four hours, some of which was drive time. A lot of which was finding-the-right-tree time. As you can imagine, tending to two children who aren't the most nimble in the combination of snow, ruts and dead weed, as well as making sure Mr. Shreve didn't get lost in the woods, wasn't the easiest job. So we finally had to settle on a 7- or 8-foot skinnyish but well-rounded spruce. It was a fun and very traditional family outing.