No, not that striped tent. The other one.
For as long as I can remember (post-childhood), I’ve picked out a Frasier Fir tree under a striped tent on the side of the road. It’s a family from North Carolina who packs up their tent and an RV and brings them down south from Thanksgiving week almost until Christmas. I’m sure there are more economical places to purchase a tree. And I know there are reasons to vote for an artificial one, but I’m just not there yet. Usually on the Friday before Thanksgiving they start building the outdoor structure and stringing lights. By Tuesday, the tent is up and the trees start appearing. The morning after Thanksgiving we are all giddy and listening to Christmas music en route. It’s the first day the girls wear holiday clothes and the first official day of our Christmas celebration. We have waffles and french toast and bacon at IHOP and then make our way towards the tent to make our selection. This year was no different.
There was a lot of doodling, tic-tac-toe and coloring going on at our table before breakfast.
Josh was THRILLED to wear his new Christmas sweatshirt and got quite a few laughs at the tree tent. Forgive his heinous facial hair. He is a staunch believer in no-shave November and almost always shaves a ridiculous masterpiece for the first few days of December because he lives to torture his wife. He hates taking snap shots in public and balked when I whipped out my camera at breakfast, but I told him that if I had to walk around next to that mustache, then he could certainly be embarrassed for a few minutes at breakfast. I think you can see that it worked. And thankfully, he was clean shaven and adorable for church on Sunday morning.
The shorter trees are under the tent, but we always head straight for the back row. I know we’ll never have the need for a 12 foot tree, but they are always SO pretty. Instead we look for a 9 foot beauty. I want the tallest tree I can squeeze into the rock house living room!
A bright sunny morning made for some squinty eyes and hands on our foreheads, but these two were having a great time.
We took the obligatory selfie (and captured nothing significant in the background).
But a sweet girl shopping offered to take a quick photo for us near the trees. These are my favorite.
Here are our tree hunting posts from years past:
In 2012 the pictures were so stunning {insert sarcasm font here} and the people so cooperative, that I didn’t even post them?!
In 2011, Sophie was SO tiny, Ella still had such a baby face and mama was still working on that “baby” weight.
In 2010, our tree hunt was beautiful. My sister treated it like a mini photo-shoot and we got some gorgeous shots for our Christmas card. But it was freezing and Ella complained the entire time about not going to the tent and we vowed NEVER, EVER, EVER to buy a tree anywhere else. Because this later happened.
In 2009, the prettiest tree in the lot got swiped right out from under my nose! Bunny was still in heavy rotation and can you believe how curly Bells’ hair was?
In 2008, I had just started blogging and the photographs are less than stellar. Ella was only two years old. It’s hard to even remember her being that small. She had such a sweet, round face and my goodness HER HAIR!! Oh, how I miss those sweet little curls. She was so serious about picking out a tree and got so frustrated later that afternoon when she couldn’t figure out how to hang the ornaments without them falling off!
I am so thrilled that we already have such an established tradition for the day after Thanksgiving. My girls know just what to expect and once the end of November rolls around, everyone at our house is dreaming of the big top and a pancake breakfast. Until next year.
