country christmas

{that is in fact my daughter cutting down our tree; we used my son to 'measure'  the height of our tree, it measured three of him! about 18 feet tall!}

here in Montana, for our 5th year in a row, we headed out into the woods and cut down our own Christmas tree.  it's one of those experiences that bonds a family together like little else can.  kind of like camping.  it's quite the ordeal to walk...ok, we drove part of the way... through the woods until you find 'the one', agreeing on which is debatable because each person thinks a different tree is 'the one'.  once that decision has been made and the perfect tree has been selected, another agreement must be reached, and that is who will do the cutting.  this year, our daughter, Izzi, won the right. the honor. the job of sawing and sawing until the tree came tumbling down...."t i m b e r...".

then the fun part!!! getting it in the house, decorating and the inevitable clean up.  all of which takes DAYS!!!! i just can't get it all done in a day.  i'll tell you what, though, the fact that winter lasts so long means we leave our tree and decorations up a lot longer than we ever did in CA.  why not? it's too much work to only enjoy our efforts for 3 weeks.  besides, the ground remains covered in snow and our winter wonderland keeps the holiday alive... until at least valentines day!