Tree hunting and other pursuits

Now that December is here, there might actually be more for me to write about in the next few weeks. So here we go...
Last Saturday my mom and dad and Logan and I drove up in our truck to cut down our Christmas trees. We have gone to the same Christmas tree farm up on Skyline ever since I can remember. (At least since Katie was a baby, since we have pictures of her trying to eat the Christmas trees when she was eight months old!) Logan decided that Steve- yes, the truck has a name- needed to be dressed up for the occasion. So, here is a picture of Logan and Steve just before we took off up the mountain:
I didn't take many photos of our tree hunt this year. It was rather uneventful without Katie or Bailey along for the trip. I'm looking forward to next year when Katie will be local, and that pesky thing called "college" will no longer be in the way of her joining us for family outings. At least it didn't rain on us this year. It was COLD, but a gorgeous day. Here are the Santa Cruz mountains in all their fall glory:
And trying to tie the trees into the bed of the truck:
Logan and I picked a HUGE one (by accident- it didn't look that big until we had cut it down and tried to carry it up the hill!)
It took forever to cut the tree down because, as Logan said, the saws they had for us to use were so dull he would have had better luck using a spoon.
Once we got the tree home we cut off the bottom third of it- I am not joking, it was giant- and got it inside and decked out with lights. Logan also got the outside house lights strung up last weekend, but I haven't been out to take any photos of them yet. We still haven't added ornaments to the tree. I have been sick this week, so I haven't been in any mood for holiday decorating. But I'm sure we'll get to it this weekend.
A few more photos:
The beautifully lit tree:The cute train Logan got to run around the base of the tree:One of my most prized possessions- the tree skirt my grandma made for me:
The original tree skirt was made for my parents years ago. Maybe when they first got married, which would make it almost 35 years old. It has scenes following the song of the Twelve Days of Christmas all around it. A few years ago, my mom decided that the old tree skirt had seen better days. It was made of felt, and had pine needles and dog hair from three consecutive dogs embedded in it. She bought a new tree skirt and never told me what she did with the old one.
It turns out she saved it and gave it to my grandma. My grandma cut the figures out of the old skirt and sewed them onto a new skirt she made for Logan and me. This was our Christmas present from her the first year we were in our new house. What a treasure!
By the way, if you have tried to post comments before and found that you needed to log in with a Google account to post a comment, I have disabled that function now. I didn't realize that was the default setting. Now, anyone can post and won't have to sign in.