Hissyfits Photography Blog

Saturday we loaded up the fam into Chris’ truck and headed up north to the mountains for a day trip. Our mission? To spend the day together {in quite close proximity I must say since we were crammed into a truck that has a tiny backseat!!} AND find our Christmas tree!

Chris grew up in the country. His grandparents had a Christmas tree farm and he spent many winters working on that farm with them. It was only natural for his family to always have a live Christmas tree. I, on the other hand, was extremely allergic to live trees as a child and grew up with artificial trees. Once Chris and I were married though and were still living in Kansas, we would always go “home” to the tree farm and pick out a live tree. We’d cut it, load it into the truck and haul it back to Kansas City. And then we moved out here.

Our first Christmas here we didn’t even put up a tree. Huntler was barely two and Gentry was five months. They didn’t have a clue. I was homesick and a basket case. It was hot and I just couldn’t bring myself to celebrate. I can’t remember the next year? I think that might have been the Christmas that we put up an artificial tree. Allbeit a very nice one, with Chris coming from a background of live Christmas trees, it was hard for him. So last year we left it up in the closet and went to the good old Safeway parking lot to pick out our tree. It must have been cut long before it made it to the lot though because that tree did not fare well at all!

Chris told Huntler last year that we would go to the mountains this year and cut down our very own tree. Making good on his promise, we did just that. We drove up past Payson to a huge national forest stuffed to the gills with trees and found one! What a FUN day! For the past three weeks all I have been able to think of is “National Lampoons Christmas Vacation!” Love that movie!! Luckily, we remembered our saw! And even though my ears about froze off, we weren’t walking through feet of snow or anything crazy!

Before picking out our tree we went on this quarter mile hike down to a lake. Beautiful. It is amazing to me that the Arizona I see and loathe every day is so completely different than the Arizona only two and half hours away. We have sand and dust and cacti. Up north has dirt and trees and water. I have often said that if we lived ANYWHERE but here I may not be in such a big rush to get out! That being said though, Kansas is where we belong. It is and always will be home. My heart is full knowing that in just a short time we will be heading back for Christmas…spending the holidays with those we love most and those who love us. It is hard living here. Since we got home from New York it has been really hard for me…the cool weather really brought on a sense of homesickness and I have been counting down ever since!!

Here is our trip in snapshots…if I attempted to edit these, they would be like the thousands of other images that never make it to the blog!

The tree is up and adorned with sparkly lights and cheerful ornaments. The mess has been cleaned up and now we get to enjoy the holiday spirit! Happy Monday!

Filed under my-lil-lollies, by Bethany