Christmas Time!

Last year, for the first time ever, we bought our Christmas tree at a Christmas tree lot.  We usually go to a Christmas tree farm and cut our own down.  We couldn't find a tree farm in Humboldt county, so we ended up at a lot.  I don't know if it was the fact that the tree seemed dead in a VERY short time or if it was the uneventful feeling we had while picking out our tree at a lot...whichever the case we vowed NOT to do it again this year.  We were  determined to find a tree farm or pay the $10.00 and trudge out into the forest to find our own tree.  After a bit of research we finally found someone who knew of a tree farm in the hills of Arcata.  It isn't advertised.  It's more a word of mouth sort of place.  So on Saturday morning we set out to find the "hidden" tree farm.  We didn't really expect to find it since the directions we were given were quite vague.  To our surprise we found it pretty easily.  It was GREAT!  It's a tree farm that a local, older couple have at their house.  You walk around their property in search for the perfect tree.  The only stipulation is that the tree must be taller than 5 feet (as you can see ours is 10 ft).  Once you find your perfect tree you flag it and then cut it down.  Many of the best trees were already flagged, but after a bit of searching we found our perfect tree!  At first our plan was to flag it and take one more look to see if there was anything better, but Zoe refused to leave the tree.  Her exact words were "This is our tree.  I'm going to stay by it and protect it so no one else takes it."  That pretty much settled the decision...we knew it must be the tree for us.  After we had our picture taken by our tree, went on a hayride and had some free apple cider served from the couples' kitchen we tied our tree to the top of our car and headed home.  It's definitely a tree with "character".  At first we named it our Charlie Brown tree.  Then we thought it was a little more Whoville-ish.  Now I'm not really sure what type of tree it is, but it definitely showcases our whacky ornaments nicely.