Getting our Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree the Friday after Thanksgiving. As usual, we bought a permit and went up Hyalite Canyon and chopped one down. We all had a blast, and we were lucky it wasn't very cold. Plenty of snow, but not very cold. Here I am with Ruby on my back, and Skippy with her sweater on. Oh yeah, and we were very pleased with our "new" Expedition. There's no way we would have made it in our van! And now there's plenty of room for the girls, so they can come whenever we go to the mountains now. They loved it.

Poor Jason had to carry Reder on his back. He's awfully big to be doing that, but the snow was so deep there was no way Reder could have walked on his own. Here is a shot of Jason and Reder with our tree:

Here the kids are playing in the car while Dad was tying the tree to the top. They thought it was pretty special to get to play in the car without having to be strapped in!:

Here's the tree in our family room. Reder was a very patient boy, b/c turned out it took quite awhile to get the lights on the dumb thing, as Jason had to fix pretty much every strand. Finally we got to decorate!:

we absolutely could not convince Reder that he should put ornaments all over the tree, not just on one branch. Here is his handiwork. Obviously we rearranged things a bit after he went to bed:

All in all we are very excited for Christmas this year. Kids just make it so much fun!