Christmas Tree Hunt

Oh Christmas Tree, oh Christmas Tree how hard it is to find you!!  We decided to revisit the tradition of cutting our own tree this year.  The past couple of years we just couldn't find the time.  I know, sad but true.  This year we caught wind of a tree farm down in Roscoe IL.  Wasn't really that far maybe 20 minutes.  However, it was well worth it!  What a great place!  Roaring campfire, free hot cocoa and wagon/tractor rides out to the tree fields!  They even had some horse drawn rides for some of the fields!  Grace and Owen were wide eyed seeing the horses come by with their bells jingling!

Tree hunting wasn't quite the same in years past.  Most of the time we have several inches of snow to trudge through and its SO beautiful.  In some years even snowing huge beautiful flakes.  Not this year it was muddy and dreary.  We did luck out that it wasn't bitterly cold.  Good thing because Mom managed to forget the bag that had some of our gloves and Grace's boots.  So, here we go a tree hunting and Grace is in socks and Crocs.  Poor thing, she was a trooper, cold toes and all.  I managed to dig up one glove from my glove compartment for myself.  I found a set of mittens for Owen in a box I had in the back to go to consignment and away we went.  It seemed to take us forever to find just the right tree!  We were kind of picky because we had a different spot from last year in the house because of rearranging furniture.  We also didn't want to spend a fortune!  Anyhow, we finally decided on the tree we came back to about 3 different times!  We cut her down and Grace and Dad carried it back to the trailer to be hauled back.
While Dad got it on the car the kids and I went across the street where they had a cafe and store.  Outside they had a whole area with pony, train rides and small zoo of animals complete with a reindeer!  It was a really neat place that I am sure will continue to be a tradition in the coming years!