The Giant Tree 2011
Forget Black Friday! Forget the shopping madness and idiotic drivers and retail crazed lunatics. I’m not into that and thankfully neither is the hubby. We go on a tree hunt on black Friday and turn it into Colorful, Sparkly, Beautiful Friday that is scented with freshly cut Christmas tree! And we were successful on our adventure for “The Tree” today! We call it “the tree” because we like the ones that start at 15 feet. Yes, you read it right. We like them tallllllll.
A brief history, or as I like to say, “the reader’s digest version” for you:
When we found and fell in love with our home, one of the many reasons was because it has an open two-story living room that we knew would host a ginormous single-tree forest for approximately 6 weeks out of the year. The first year we ventured into the gorgeous Carolina mountains and came home with a big one, it took my husband plus three of our guy friends almost three hours to work that sucker through our front door and into a stable and upright position. Since our “test run” we have it down to a 30 minutes or less science (and we learned to pick a more slender tree that would fit through the baler). *History lessen over*
We awoke today a smidge late…mama’s alarm had been switched to pm (oops), but it was sunny and beautiful and after breakfast we loaded our boys and all of our cold weather gear into the pickup truck and hitched the trailer and off we went. Our scenic drive took us to Joe Edward’s Tree Farm, in Sparta. It’s our fourth year there and we are quite fond of the people and their selection. And today – oh, y’all – today I would classify as the perfect tree hunting day. We ditched our sweaters and toboggans and were quite comfy in just our long sleeves (sorry to any who had to witness my combo bedhead/hat hair!! I wasn’t expecting to not need my hat!) Our three year old was elated at this new environment and I tied little man to me in our moby wrap. We got to ride in the hay trailer up and down the drive, and watch the tree guys cut down our tree and get it prepped. Zeb and I picked out a beautiful fresh wreath and Matt let Evan “help” him secure the tree to the trailer. After some quick diaper changes we were on our way back down the mountain and waiting for a cell phone signal to call our tree team with an installation time frame.
It’s a fuller tree this year so it takes up more of the room and hall, but I love it! Lights are next on the agenda for this lovely long weekend and I’m having my second annual tree decorating party in a few days with all of my lady friends so we’ll get this thing totally blinged out before the big ‘ol Christmas party next weekend.
Our official measurement after installation: 16 feet 1.5 inches
Ready for our hay ride
Here comes a tractor-load of trees! Tagged and ready to be tied & measured.
Here it is! “The Tree” 2011
AMEN – it fit through the baler!
Helping daddy secure the tree to the trailer
Me with sweet Zeb
In its’ final position, ready for lights and ornaments.
