Yes, we would be *that* family.
The ones who have gone for 36 years to hunt
for our Christmas tree
in any woods or tree farm we could find.
There have been only two exceptions
in the 36 years.
Once was back in 1983
and I was seriously ill.
I ended up in a life-threatening medical situation
and major surgery ensued.
And the second time was two years ago
when we had just gotten out of the hospital
with our littlest treasure, Ruby.
She’d just had her fourth brain surgery in
less than 2 months. We were new
to Phoenix. There was no way we could traipse
through the woods with our sweet,
but very fragile bundle.
The point being,
we never, ever miss,
except under dire circumstances.
Our kids look forward to it every year.
We have certain things we do as part of going,
details that are very important to us as a family.
Someone once
{when we were new parents}
that traditions bind a family together.
True enough.
We keep the same traditions each year
and we all look forward to them each year.
There are some years the tree hunt was so
extraordinary that we still laugh about it.
This year, thanks to God’s amazing grace,
despite the thick cloud cover,
we were able to Skype our Emma
in from Africa as we hunted for a tree.
Emma was able to see the one we picked out
and, although there were some glitches,
she was able to have a little taste of
being family.
Together.
Even though oceans and continents apart.
{Oh how we miss her –
every moment of every day.}
Join us for our day filled with loving
{and somewhat crazy}
traditions….
Two hours north…..
Snow on the mountain in Flagstaff!!
{Too close for me.}
We were driving and it was sunny and the sky was clear and blue and without warning we found ourselves facing
the weirdest dark cloudish covering…..
Can you see how odd it was?
{still shake our heads it was that odd}
And once ‘inside’ it…
it looked like there was no sunshine for miles…
So the official yearly hunt began…
Emma is one of the funniest people we know…
and had us laughing uproariously
Seriously, she’s hysterical.
“What do you think of this one Emma?”
We didn’t have cold weather stuff to wear,
and tried to improvise,
but found ourselves freezing out bee-hinds off
{after all the temperatures were dipping in the 50’s}….
And Miss Ruby was so unhappy being cold
{this little chica is so-her-mama’s-daughter and
is definitely not into being chilly}
Eventually Graham went to the car with Ruby
{and Jubilee who was so over the cold too}…
Giggling as I type this…
the kids were dropping like flies over being too cold
We have turned into
Lifetime Members
of the
I-Hate-Being-Cold-Club.
And then the kids found sticks and that
helped them forget just how cold they were
{for about two minutes}.
And I happened to catch Isaiah’s expression as
he banged Elizabeth’s stick and his broke off –
check out his face as he was left holding a little nob…
Below is Elijah’s,
“My hands are so stinkin’ frozen holding this snowball,
but I think it’s so cool to have a snowball
I don’t want to let go.”
Nehemiah had made a snow/mud ball
which made an amazingly “colorful” and intriguing
mark on the clothes that it hit.
{ugh}
Back to Phoenix and the warmth.
And that, sweet friends,
was enough snow/cold for this woman
to last until the next Christmas tree hunt
unless we can find a tree lot in Mexico.
What great memories y'all made. And to think you used to live in the mountains…in the snow :).
Blessings,
Suzanne
Seriously!! I feel like the biggest wuss in the world…but I despise being cold…I never liked being cold, however, now that we live in beautiful Phoenix…I don't care if I ever partake in cold again. Ha!
Love it! We went tree hunting today as well… such fun, especially since I was in China last Christmas. My question is this… there was wifi at the tree farm?
Dw put a "hot spot" on his phone?? I have no idea about any of that, but when he travels, he sometimes has used a hot spot…we were really praying it would work…and with that weird cloud cover, we knew it would *have* to be the Lord! It was sketch some of the time, but hey{!} it worked some of it too…and we are so grateful for that. So glad you are home for Christmas – Emma will be gone a year January 6th. We miss her so.
That makes sense. I'm so glad that it worked!!!
No tree farms here, and the small Christmas size trees here leave much to be desired so we hit up Home Depot. Not as much fun. They are all tied up so its a surprise once we get home to see what we've picked!
The skyping thing made me smile. Like Emma I'm in my first months living away from home and the other day my family and I had a birthday cake by skype. Nice to see others "being family" despite the miles. 🙂