Friday, December 4, 2009

The Tradition continues

Last year we started a tradition of cutting down our own XMAS tree. I have NEVER had an artificial tree in my life (Dale had never had a real one--and I was NOT about to have an artificail tree, so Dale changed over to my way) and so we have always gone to Wilson's to buy a real one. Honestly, how much fun is picking a XMAS tree hanging from a ceiling like you're in a slaughter house. So, I was ecstatic when I found out about Mason's Family Farm last year. Last year there was alot more snow this time of year, so it seemed a little more festive, but since there wasn't any snow, nor the cold temp. this year, we were able to stay out alot longer to find the perfect one.

Close to the start, Blake found a really nice fir one. We normally do buy fir trees, but they are actually very difficult to hang ornaments on---they are just so perfectly shaped and such short needles, so when I spotted a nice natural Pine tree, I so wanted to have it.

Extremely sensitive issue when your 7 year old thinks that we are supposed to get the tree that HE wants. So, Blake got major attitude and our fun day was beginning to be not so much fun. But we kept our cool and just kept encouraging Blake to find just the right tree for our needs---long needles to hang the ornaments on and a nice full bottom to get lots of presents under it. His attitude finally changed after about 15 minutes when he realized that Avery and Daddy were trying to find us and he thought it was fun to run away and hid amongst the trees. Anyway, I led him all around the trees, in and out, again and again until we came back to the one that I wanted. By this time, of course, he couldn't judge where we were, so when I said "Do you see any good ones here Blake", he looked and hummed and then pointed to "my tree" and one next to it and said " these ones look good". I said "Wow, they sure do--do you think we should pick one of these?" So, after an 'eenie meenie minie moe' he ended up picking the one I wanted all along. He was so proud of finding the best tree and we kept telling him what a great job he did finding one and how great it looked-----so it turned out to be a good tree hunt after all!





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like fun! We will DEFINATELY be doing this next year! I love your parenting skills...good tip on how to resolve conflict!!

Jenn said...

What an awesome family tradition! Love how Blake came around to picking your tree. Fab story!