Running from the Law: Oh, Christmas Tree

Monday, December 12, 2016

Oh, Christmas Tree

We barely had time to digest our third Thanksgiving dinner of the weekend before I was itching to move on to the main event of the season...Christmas!! I was all kinds of excited about this being the first year that the McCarty family would cut down our own tree! If we're going to claim to be all outdoorsy and all, it's only appropriate. While my husband begged me to pack up the mule and the chainsaw and head into the forest to find our tree, I instead opted for the cultivated orchard/tree farm experience. I mean, we're not freaking frontiersman here, as much as his beard wants you to believe otherwise. 

Anyway, we headed to one of our ultimate family happy places - Eckert's Farm, Belleville - to take a nice warm bus out to a beautiful field of perfectly coiffured Christmas trees, any of which would look beautiful in our living room. They had field after field of pretty little trees all lined up in rows, just waiting for us to make our selection. Mac was in charge of the measuring tape and possibly measured every single tree we passed. Once again, he liked the little ones and the smaller they were, the more adamantly he wanted to take them home with us. Once again, I liked the giant trees that would never even fit through our front door, forcing Ryan to be the voice of reason - talking us both into more appropriately sized trees. Mimmy just ran around hugging every single tree, petting the branches and saying how much she loved them all. Occasionally, she'd just sit down in the middle of everything and refuse to move until I gave her a snack. That kid is something. 

It only took us about 20 minutes of aimless wandering around to find the PERFECT tree! We all unanimously decided that it was the most gorgeous little tree on the whole lot and everyone else there was a fool to have missed this beauty. We stood around staring at it for a good long while, making wagers on how hard it was going to be to cut through the trunk with the handsaw provided. Ryan did the honors, while Mac supervised and Mim ate graham crackers. He had our tree felled in no time (literally, less than a minute). So, we hauled her back to the road and took her home with us to decorate! Her name's Holly and she's been a constant source of joy for the kids (and our cat). We couldn't be happier with the new addition to our family. 

How do you tree? 
Real tree or artificial? 
Cut your own or pick out at a lot?

13 comments:

  1. I love the pictures and Mac with the measuring tape is so funny! Great job finding a great tree!

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  2. I love Mac and the measuring tape!! We are a fake tree family - we had a real tree the first year Dave and I lived together and it was dead by Christmas lol.

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  3. Mim's hand on her daddy's head is about the sweetest thing. Such an experience..!! We have an artificial tree, so getting it out of storage and upstairs is an experience in itself as well, but not nearly as cute and photo-worthy. ;)

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  4. Love all these pictures so much! We cut down our tree one year and then year after the tree lot closed. We haven't been able to go cut one down since but I am hoping next year we do!

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  5. So many memories! Growing up, both Luke & I were used to real trees. Then, we got married & lived in a apartment for our first Christmas, so we went artificial. Since our first Christmas, we've gone back & forth between artificial & real. This year was artificial.

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  6. How fun for you all! That tree is quite the looker. Conor & I always talk about tromping through the actual woods for a rogue tree, so we may skip the farm next year and do that. They do it Montana, so....

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  7. Looks like a fun time. I love how Mac was in charge of measuring the trees. What a lil man. & Mim, that picture of her with her hand on Dad's head is so precious. :)

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  8. Scott refuses to get a real tree, and a little piece of my Christmas soul dies each year we put up the fake one.
    And, Eckert's. Seriously. Is that place beyond magic or what?! We've tossed around the idea of adding our name to the STL list, and I kind of want to JUST because of Eckert's.

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  9. I love this!! My family used to visit a tree farm every year to cut down our own Christmas tree. I miss that! I need to start that tradition with my family. Great pictures!

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  10. Gosh, your photos make me want to go pick out a real tree!! Gorgeous, as always! And your blog seems to be working again on my end. Sorry for not checking yesterday, but this is the first I've been on the computer in a few days.

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  11. First order of business- I NEED to go to STL and visit Eckerts! That farm is amazing. I have never cut down a tree of any kind before and just recently found out there's a Christmas tree farm semi-close by us; it's on the to-do list for sure :)

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  12. The photos are so beautiful~~ How fun for you all, the kid is so excited. Now I want to go to a farm with my family after see your photos~
    mastiff

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  13. What a fun experience!! We definitely plan on doing this someday. Once I trust Ez and Declan with a tape measurer ;)

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