Never again!!!!!!!

Today was the day that we decided to go to the tree farm and cut down our Christmas tree!! Woohoo!!!! I LOVE Christmas time :)

 

Growing up we always had a real Christmas tree. My mom was not a fake tree type of person! BUT growing up in Florida, well, we don't have Christmas tree farms....... unless you want a palm tree as your Christmas tree.... Anyways, we always had to get our real tree from a tree lot on the side of the road.

 

Living in Virgina on the other hand there are LOTS and LOTS of tree farms where we can go pick out and cut down any tree that we want!! Last year we decided that we wanted to start the tradition of cutting down our own tree every year :) We had such a good experience last year and I was rather excited for today to get here so we could pick out and cut down our tree.

 

Our experience this year should be just as wonderful right?!?!

 

 

I went online and did a search of tree farms in our area and basically picked the closest one to our house. We loaded up the van and off we went. It was a GORGEOUS day yesterday, but today when we went it was a lovely 34 degrees out. (That made for a lot of fun with the little ones.) The tree farm was at the top of this mountain with this TINY road. I was 100% sure that we were going to fall off of the mountain when another vehicle passed us. 

 

For those of you who do not know, we have a 15 passenger van and it pretty much took up this whole road! Passing another vehicle seriously made my heart stop beating!

 

We got there alive despite my doubts and I was very pleased with the farm :) They had gorgeous trees!! The name of the farm was Ralph's for any of you who may want to go :)

I'm ready, mommy!!

 

We started looking around....

Then, Michael found it...... The tree that he HAD to have!

Yup, you guessed it. It is that BIG one he is standing next to.

 

Vanessa told me she wanted this little tree for her bedroom...lol

(And after everything we went through tonight with Michael's tree I really wish we had gotten this little tree instead!!!)

 

Ok babe, get your saw ready now you have to cut it down.

I was really unsure about getting a tree this big, but Michael was insistent. His reason was that where we are renting now has HUGE vaulted ceilings and we may never have a chance to have a huge tree like this again. I was hesitant, but I went along with him anyways. (Note to self....ALWAYS follow your gut!)

 

While Michael cut down the tree I took the little ones back to the van to defrost, and a snack :)

 

I went back to see how Michael was doing and he hadn't progressed very much. Lucky for him, I spotted a man carrying a chainsaw, so Michael went and asked if he could borrow it.

 

All I kept saying was, "Are you sure about this Michael??"

 

All he kept saying was, "Oh yeah!"

 

The next obstacle was going to be how to get his massive beast home.... 5 guys stood around the van saying that this was not going to work. Which of course only made Michael more determined to make it work. We decided to drop the back seat in the van and just shoved it in as much as we could. 

 

Here was the finished product. I made Michael stop 3 times on the way home so I could check it because I was sure that it was going to fall out!! Despite my negative thoughts we did make it home without any problems, Thank God!! Now the next test for the tree..... How to get it into the house!!!

 

Me-Are you sure about this Michael???

Michael- Oh yeah!

 

We got it in, and up..... sort of.....

 

I wish I could say that it stayed there, but it didn't. It kept leaning, BAD! About 3 min after we got it up it fell....... The hubs rigged it and got it straight and exactly where I wanted it..... After about 90 min of fighting with the tree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was sooooo happy that it was finally up. Then 5 minutes later it fell again!! After it fell for a second time I started thinking... I wonder if my wonderful husband cut the bottom of the tree to make sure it was perfectly straight before he put it in the stand. I mean, that is tree stand LOGIC 101, right?? His answer, Nope!! WHAT?!?!?

No wonder the stupid thing kept falling! So while the tree was in the house we had to bust out the electric saw. That didn't make a mess or anything....

 

Now, we are sitting here an hour after putting the tree up (again!) We cleaned up the mess from the tree falling over, the mess from the saw dust everywhere and thankfully the tree is still standing! If I ever get over my irritation of the tree I will post a picture of it standing tall in our living room and maybe I will even decide to decorate it. For now though I choose to wait here and think about how I will NEVER get a huge tree like that again!!!! Also, I will be praying through out the night that it is still standing when I wake up in the morning, because I REALLY do not want to hold that tree up anymore!! 

 

 

*It still leans slightly (Like maybe an inch) to the left, but it is staying like that!! I think it helps the tree build character :)

   

In case you were wondering, I will NEVER get a tree this big again!!!