Getting the Christmas Trees

We headed to the forest near Boulder Lake to cut our Christmas trees again this year.  Mr. Trouble on Feet and Mr. Sneaky Pants each got an ax of their own this year.  They love their axes.

Truly, it was prime tree-cutting weather:  25 degrees, sunny, little wind.  There was enough snow on the ground to make things feel Christmas-like, but not too much snow to make it difficult to walk on the trails or tell whether a tree was actually good or not.  It was such a difference from the twenty degrees below zero that we experienced last year right after a snowstorm that dropped three feet of snow in the forest.

Really, this boy was so happy with his ax.  Of all the coldest, he perhaps looks forward to tree-cutting day the most.  It’s a very big deal to him, and he had big plans for a bowl of chili, and cutting down no less than THREE trees.  I felt a little guilty having three trees  last year, although the third tree I actually enjoyed the most.  I even considered ratcheting back to two this year, but Mr. Trouble on Feet would hear nothing about that.  Three trees it was.  We were not leaving out the dining room. 

Perhaps the funniest moment of the morning occurred when Dr. Peds was chopping up the extra trunk into logs to burn in the fireplace.  The rhythmic swinging of the ax inspired all four kidlets to gather around and loudly cheer “Heave!  Ho!  Heave!  Ho!”  It probably caused the rest of the people in the forest to wonder.

Two trees were down, and The Banana helped me pick out a small, cute tree for the dining room.  Mr. Trouble on Feet chopped it down mostly all by himself.  He was so proud of himself.  Not only did we actually get all three trees, but he had a lot of ownership in the third one.  He carried it all the way back to the car (with a little help from me).  

Side note:  there is really nothing more adorable that a boy with a lisp trying to say “Christmas tree.”  I’m going to have to make a recording of it.