oh christmas tree

Sometimes I think my plans and picture of what life is like are so construed.  I have this picture perfect view of what Christmas should be like.  I think of people all wrapped up in mittens, scarves, and hats and walking along singing Christmas carols while cutting down their tree.  This is what really happens.

We wait for K. to wake up from his nap; he apparently is REALLY tired so he sleeps until 4:00.  The tree farm, which thankfully is close by our new house, closes at 5:00. I try to change his clothes to put on the nice warm cozy picture perfect clothing.  He refuses to take off his huge snoopy shirt, which is almost standing up by itself because he has also refused to take it off for the past 3 days.  We load up the snoopy clad boy and a girl whom is complaining because wearing a sweater under her coat makes it so that she can't bend her arms.  

The drive is actually only about 10 minutes; just enough time for whining about the temperature of coats in the car.  We park and a man remarkably resembling Santa meets us to pass out a saw and tell us where to trek to find the best trees.  We set off; B with the saw and wagon, A and K following while I start snapping pictures.  

B. quickly leaves the wagon to me because it is slowing him down.  It takes about .5 seconds for the wagon to get stuck in a rut and then another and then another while my family is getting farther away.  The only way that I know where they are going is that A. is beginning to complain that her shoes are falling off inside of her boots.  The fiddling with the boots does allow the wagon pulling mama to catch up.  

Then, we are both behind the determined boys while I am helping her adjust her boots, and adjust them again.  Finally, we take off the socks, which is actually good because she left her cute mittens in the car and her hands are freezing. 

 Now, the wagon pulling mama and the sock handed girl set off to find the determined boys. Thankfully, it only takes a second because they have already traveled to one corner and are making their way back without a tree that B. finds worthy.  A., K. and I point out about 20 trees which are quickly turned down by Daddy. It's getting dark so we decided to ditch the wagon with the plan to come back and get it if we need it to pull the wagon. 

Now, sock handed girl, is holding hands with nonwagon pulling mama.  We start singing Christmas carols as I am determined to make this live up to all of my dreams.  "Hey, B, will you take our picture?"  He promptly does and then takes his saw and carries on.  About 10 minutes and lots of walking later, I go to take another picture and realize that I have somehow lost my phone. ... We now take the next 20 minutes as it gets darker and darker to retrace our rutty tree farm steps to find my phone.  

Sock handed kid, check

snoopy shirt kid, check

 phone, check,

 tree...  

We are now back to the building without a tree.  We are about to pick out a precut tree when A. says, "Hey, Daddy, how about this one?"  She is pointing to a tree that is growing 9 trees in from the building.  

It's big, fat, and now coming to our house.  

Picture perfect, no.  Real, yes!