It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

After a beautiful clear morning, the clouds rolled in, and by this evening we had a light layer of snow covering the roads, sidewalks, and garden.

We took advantage of the good weather, to go to a Christmas Tree farm, and cut down a beautiful Douglas Fir. This year we tried out the Aldor Acres farm in Langley. After cutting the tree, we enjoyed visiting the animals, all of which are friendly and can be petted. There were some very small bunnies to hold. The goats had a few small kids. The horse had a foal, as did one of the donkeys. There were also pigs, and a lama. Nice crackling fire and hot chocolate, too.

We have a beautiful 18' high ceiling in our living room, and no furniture yet (except a baby grand piano), which allows us to get a pretty good sized tree. Last year, it was the biggest and fullest yet, at about 12'. This year, I guess we got a bit more carried away, at a whopping 15' high. I don't know how I'm going to get up there to put the lights on, and a topper. Oh well, it looks pretty amazing, anyhow, even without decorations (see photo right).

People always stare at us (like we're a bit crazy, which I guess is a fair assumption) when we haul in our tree and tie it to the roof of our car. This year, they commented that we must have a pretty big house. Yes, a high ceiling, for sure. And fortunately we measured the diameter of the inside of the base (5") before we went out, since this one just barely fit. A few others we had considered, would not have. So even with this one, there is maybe only an inch of space around the trunk for water, so I'll need to watch the water levels very regularly! And of course, the tree seems to weigh a few hundred pounds! I got a sore neck just holding it straight while my husband tightened the screws in the base. I don't know how he even managed to lift it up to push it into the base.

The good news is that the last few years, we've been able to enjoy the tree all the way through the birthday season also (which goes from January to early February in our house). I'm already talking about a "camping" theme with my daughter, for her next birthday party. If we get really ambitious, we can set up a tent in the living room, and the kids can pretend to be out camping. Could be fun.