Saturday, November 26, 2011

More mud + rain = a Christmas Tree!

Remember last week when we went to the Tough Mudder and there was mud, mud, and more mud??  Well, this weekend was not much different.  No, Ryan didn't race again this weekend, but we did find ourselves slopping through tons o' mud to get our annual Christmas Tree.


Ryan has been cutting down a live tree since he was a little lad.  This was a whole new experience for me when I met him because we always had a fake tree.  Don't get me wrong, I've always loved our fake tree.  There was something about getting the whole family together to form an assembly line to haul all the decorations and the tree down from the attic, but since I met Ryan (over 4 years ago), I've adopted the McGrath tradition of hunting and cutting our own prefect tree.  The nature of nature means that no tree is ever the same and each year we get something slightly different, but that is part of the fun of it.



This picture made me laugh soI just had to include it. 

Last year our tree was a little too small.  Ryan was adament that our tree was the perfect size, but once we got it home we both agreed that we could have gone taller and fatter, so that was our goal for this year. 

This year Chris and Brenna joined us.  After some discussion about whether or not they were going to get a tree, Chris won the battle and the also walked away with a beauitful tree for their house!



What a cute holiday couple!!  Love them....and Brenna's attempt at the "Lindsay pose".



That's our typical tree cutting picture.  I am 99.9% sure we've got one of these from each of the years we've gone hunting.  Now that I've got this great blog I will be able to reference back each year to our old pictures, so here goes nothing!! 



Somehow I missed getting a picture of Dan and Ellyn's tree.  They were the first ones to settle on a tree and start cutting.  While Ry and I were searching for our perfect (extra chubby) tree, Dan was hauling his tree back to the truck and paying.  I almost gave the "first tree" award to Chris and Brenna since they were technically the first ones to "choose" a tree, but they didn't end up cutting that one, so Dan and Ellyn get the First Tree award. 

Ryan and I were the second ones to cut.  While Ryan was helping Dan carry back his tree, I found an extra large tree that I was sure Ryan would veto.  But, after getting enough grief from me last year about the size of our tree, he pretty much let me pick whatever I wanted.  **SPOILER ALERT** It's perfect!!

Finally, Chris and Brenna settled on their perfect tree as well.  They have extra tall ceilings so they went for a taller tree, but since they are in an apartment, one the second floor, they went for a skinnier tree.



Check out those muddy knees!!  See, C&B have adopted our traditional Christmas Tree picture.  I hope they adopt our tradition as well, it's so much fun!!  And, I've got to say, the house smells great with a freshly cut tree(although, it isn't strong enough to cover up the smell of Ryan's farts!!!!).

Because video is my newest favorite thing to add to the blog, here is a quick action video of the boys cutting down one of the trees.


At the end of the day, we got three beautiful trees.  We were all pretty well soaked, and the boys were covered with mud, but it was a sucessful day overall.


Ain't she a beaut!?!?!  I love it.  It looks like it has a little bit of a lean in this picture, but it's perfect in person!  Less than 12 hours from the ground to our living room and I'm so happy with it!  Staley seems super excited to have the outside, inside so we will see how it goes.  This is her second Christmas with us, but I think she forgot.  Ha!! 

It's officially the holiday season!  How is your Christmas tree coming??  Did you have your decorations up before Thanksgiving??  Ry and I are definately "after Thanksgiving" folks.

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