Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree....

We got a late start this year thanks to Disney and wedding trips, but we're in full Christmas decorating mode now. Of course, the key ingredient for that is the Christmas tree, and each year we head north (well, at least north of Birmingham) to cut a live tree from Beaver's Christmas Tree Farm. They grow white pine, Virginia pine and Leyland cypress trees. When we're in the mood for a traditional tree we'll get one of the pines, but this year was one of those years we were in the mood for a Southern christmas, and the Leyland cypress is known as the Southern christmas tree. It's a little different than what you're used to up north, but we think it works well.

So off we went in search of our Leyland cypress. As another example of why it's pretty nice to live in Alabama, it was 72 degrees on December 16th when we went out for our tree. :-) So it was sunroof-open on the car as we made our way through rural Alabama. Here we are enjoying the beautiful sunny day on the tree farm.


It didn't take very long for us to find our tree. She's a 7-footer, just the right size for our living room (I think the hill I am standing on is making it look taller - no,I haven't shrunk to 4' tall!) I got the saw and prepared to go to work.



Thanks to Katie's new Subaru Outback, loading the tree up for the ride home was significantly easier this year than in years past when we had to finagle it into the Accord. The tree got home in excellent condition, and here it is, up and decorated, in the morning sun with the first of the presents already underneath.


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!