Who Could Ask For Anything Moore? ...: O Christmas Tree

It is officially Christmas at our house and we have a give or take 9 foot Christmas tree to prove it! Saturday we continued the Moore family tradition and drove out to the Spring/Tomball area to a Christmas tree farm so that we could cut down our own tree. We have been doing this since Andrew's first Christmas in 2004, and I have to say, I love that we have started a family tradition! Doug's mom comes with us every year and we make a full evening of picking out the tree and having lunch or dinner and coffee - it is great family bonding time!

We arrived in the late afternoon (not because Douglas got confused about which farm we were going to or anything like that, wink wink) and took a short hay ride to the Leyland Cypress trees. The search for the perfect tree had begun. There were not a lot of Leyland Cypress trees to choose from this year -- apparently all of the rain this summer caused many of this particular farm's trees to drown. This farm also sells Virginia Pines, but their branches are not as soft, so we prefer the Leylands. For the record, I much prefer the Douglas and Fraser firs, but those are not indigenous to Texas (they are trucked in) and thus you can not chop one of those down yourself (here is a link to a site that has all of the Christmas tree types: http://www.christmastree.org/types.cfm ... and yes, it is official, EVERYTHING is available on the internet!).

After walking around in circles, we settled on a tree and Douglas and Andrew began the hard work of sawing it down. Andrew was excited to be there and wanted to help, but he was also enamored with the many sticks that were readily available, so it was tough work to keep him focused on the boring details of taking photos for posterity and things like that! The older boys chopped down the tree and then Doug dragged the tree back to the main farm road so that the tractor could pick us (and our tree) back up. The farm then measures, shakes and bales the tree for you before you load it on your car to take it home. Then it was to Starbucks and Panera - what a treat!

Sunday we (read: Doug) put the lights on the tree and we have slowly started adding ornaments. Andrew was given the honor of putting the angel on the tree this year and he was very excited to do so. I had grand aspirations for him to help with the ornaments this year, but the ones that he puts on the tree keep falling off! Oh well!

In other Christmas related news, we have been reading Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and a Christmas Story, singing Christmas songs, looking at Christmas lights and watching Christmas shows (i.e. Mickey saves Santa), needless to say, I think that Andrew loves Christmas time! He does not appear to be afraid of Santa this year (he already said hello to Santa at the mall), so that is a good start. We will do part 2 of the Moore family Christmas tradition and go out to see a huge light display and visit Santa in the next week or so. So far Andrew is only asking for a "big present" ... oh to be young and care free!

Now, for what you really came to see ...

Andrew on the hay ride