One of our family traditions is to head out to a local tree farm to hand pick and cut down our tree. Wata Farm is the proto-typical Christmas Tree Farm. Parking is provided in a grass field that fills up quickly. They do have several people helping to guide people to parking spots. Getting in and out of the farm itself can be difficult because the driveway is one lane wide. People wanting to leave will sometimes get stuck waiting for a long line of people coming in to clear the way out and vice versa. The driveway really could use a widening.
Once you get into your spot it is only a short distance to the carts they provide to haul your tree in from the field. Without fail several of my boys tussle over who will help me pull the cart up the hill to the trees. Christmas music can be heard within earshot of the checkout area which is a nice touch. The trees are planted in orderly rows with different types labeled at the end of the row. We walked all the way to the top of the hill this year to try a new type of tree that is supposed to give better support to heavier ornaments.
It didn’t take us more than 10 minutes to locate a tree that met our specifications. Here’s the gang posing with our tree pre-cut:
Our family tradition, which has only been interupted a few times in the past 10 years or so is to drop off the tree at home then head to Friendly’s for lunch or dinner followed up by ice cream. We don’t eat out much so this is a big treat for the boys. This year due to a scheduled nap for son #4 as soon as we got home from the farm we cut the bottom two inches off the tree and place it in the stand filled with water. This was much easier to accomplish without son #4 helping out.
Once everyone is in bed I string the lights on the tree by myself. The next day, again during son #4′s nap the older boys help decorate the tree:
Son #4 has been pretty good so far with the tree, only ripping off a stray ornament here and there. Here he shows his grip for grabbing ornaments.
Now all we need to do is wait for the big guy to arrive.