Another year, another giant tree...

One of our favorite holiday traditions is to make the long trek up to Lassen National Forest to find and cut a Christmas tree. There are so many things I love about the tree-cutting trip: the fresh mountain air, spending time with my sister & her family, watching the kids traipse around in the woods, watching folks' jaws drop when I tell them my giant tree only cost $10. (Okay, so that last thing is my favorite part, but naturally I don't include the price of diesel in the cost estimate because that would ruin all of the fun!) 

We don't make it up every year, but when we do it's always an adventure, as you can tell from the photos below. We ended up with a beautiful fir (probably a white fir), which was definitely the largest we've ever had. Kirk estimated that it was 19 feet tall; whatever its true height we never managed to decorate the very top front of it, despite Kirk's and my most daring ladder maneuvers. Trimming the darn thing was a week-long effort, but worth all of the effort (and diesel)! 

 Koen & Rynn, hunting for the perfect tree.

 Dillon, sawing down the kids' tree.

Watching the tree come down...

 Yes, that is a F-350 with a long-bed. Yes, there are still 5+ feet of tree protruding from the back.

 Lawson chilling in daddy's truck. Really just an excuse to sneak some extra cuteness into this post. 

 Kirk says this shot needs the following caption: "Damn lights!"

What a good sport Kirk was about stringing lights on 19 feet of tree.

The big boys setting up the creche.  

 This is the best photo I could manage to get of this behemoth.  It was absolutely lovely.