The Big Christmas Tree Hunt

We had our annual Christmast Tree hunt again this year.  Dale had invited the Nichols family at least two months ago. There is also a standing invitation to Chad and Shallen and their gang.  What was new was the addition of Mom and Dad Sorenson to the entourage this year.  It makes me laught to think that this used to be a Higley tradition but as the years have gone by, this tradition has seen the Higley family slowly go and the Sorenson family come.  We are happy to have them.  It's a tradition that my family loves, and now that the kids are old enough to take care of themselves...well except for Jessica (see Jessica's blog for full story : ), I enjoy it much more.  I don't have to hear about how cold, tired or board they are any more.  If the kids are cold I just tell them to go get in the Subby.  It's great!

Anyway, as usual we went up to Idaho near "Grandpa's Mountain" to a place called Mink Creek, to pick out our Christmas Tree.  We got all bundled up and started off.  Dale asked me which way we should go.  I pointed in a southerly direction, and we started up the mountain with Jordan and Jessica in tow.  It was a pretty overgrown forested area with a lot of dead trees and pokey branches along the way.  Dale and Jordan kept climbing and I kept yelling to see if they had found anything yet.  (I yelled, because I was pretty much left in the dust .  When it comes to climbing mountains in snowboots that are a little big, I have to take a lot of breaks.) Dale kept calling back, "It's getting better." So I kept climbing too, only to find out that "better" wasn't really much better.  We hiked through thickets of densly growing trees that poked you in the eyes if you weren't careful, over, and sometime under, downed trees lying in the path, up steep slopes and down slippery ones.  Basically we hiked all over the south side of the mountain and found NOTHING.  The best part of the trip was listening to Jessica's shrieks of "Ow!" and "Oh my heart!" every few seconds.  Her running comentary on the nature of the hike was very entertaining.  I have to say here that we never really thought Jessica was in trouble or we would have helped her.  It sounded more like she was trying to be funny, and it was.  Finally we decided to head down the mountain. On a normal year we would have seen three or four possibilities for Christmas Trees by now, but this was not a normal year.

After we went down the mountain I headed in the north easterly direction.  Yes, I still went up a mountain, but it wasn't very steep, then I headed down a dugway and there I found 2 or 3 possibilities, but I am by myself with no saw and getting further and further away from everyone.  I started thinking about having to walk back up this dugway and how hard it was going to be and, I know it's silly, but I also started thinking, fleetingly, about possible wild animals in the forest.  I decided to head back up to find the others.  As I came back, huffing and puffing, I ran into Dale.  He had found a possibility close by, but I didn't think it worthy of our Chirstmas Tree.  I told him about the ones I had seen and he said we should go look at them...Great, now I have to do that climb all over again...I took him to see the trees I had found.  There are always problems with any tree in the wild.  They will have a bare side, or two trunks, or not be bushy enough.  These trees were no exception, but it got us in the right area for finding the perfect tree.  We found it only a few feet from the last tree I had seen. Sweet! a tree that Dale and I found together. Now I have to clarify that when hunting for a tree a 15 foot tree doesn't look 15 feet out in the forest.  You really have no idea how tall a tree is until you cut it down.  So we cut down our 15 foot tree and took 3 feet off of the bottom and one foot off of the top and started hauling the tree up out of the dugway.  It was a big, heavy tree and we had to carry it back up the mountain to the car.  Even Dale got winded a couple of times.  As we were bringing ours back, we could hear Tammy and Troy urging each other on, and we ran into Chad, who had his prize dragging behind him. 

After getting back to the trucks, Dale had to go back and help Tammy and Troy bring their tree in, which was at least as big as ours.  We found the rest of the gang hanging out and eating the sandwiches made from our leftover turkey from the day before, and discussing the day's adventure. Valerie and Jaymie had spent the day building forts, and Marie and Katelyn enjoyed sledding down the roadside, and the other kids were just having fun playing in and around the vehicles.  We all had our trees and were ready to go.  Dale got our tree on top of the Subby and tied her down, and we left the mountain. 

Once we got home, Dale had to cut the tree down to 10 feet while I got out the Christmas decorations. I am the one who puts the lights on the tree,  and every year someone has to make a mad dash to the store to buy more lights, this year was no exception.  We now use 10 strands of lights on our Christmas tree, a lot I know, but it was a big tree.  It took the rest of the night to finish decortating the tree, but it is well worth the effort.  There isn't anyting really special about our tree this year over any other year.  It is beautiful as always, but I love that we are the ones to find it, cut it, and make it our special Christmas tree every year.