O Tannenbaum...How Sparse Are Your Branches

I know...it's absolutely insane that as of the 12th of December we still hadn't put up a Christmas tree. We had such grand plans for this year but they didn't come to fruition until Ian finally had a day off work so that we could take care of this vitally important Christmas task.

Thanks to a neighbor we were able to procur a permit to cut down our very own tree. So, Ian used his handy-dandy topo mapping software and GPS thingamabob to plan out the "perfect" route to acquire said tree. We packed up all the cold-weather gear we could muster and drove up Provo canyon, past Deer Creek, through Wallsburg, and then onto a single-lane, snow-covered, scary-as-heck road up into the wilds of the Utah wilderness. In the warmth of the truck it was breathtakingly beautiful. Every branch of every tree was coated in snow and I was thoroughly enjoying myself...until we stepped outside in search of our tree. YIKES! I know that I should be a bit tougher when it comes to cold weather due to my Canadian upbringing, but I'm not. Ian's satellite mapping showed that there were a lot of trees in the area...but they didn't, apparently, differentiate between the aspens and the pines so the pickings were slim. We saw several beauties on the opposite side of an icy creek but very few on our side of the water. While the girls trudged up and down the "road" Ian and I did our best to scout out a little pine tree. A few minutes after scaling a 5-foot embankment Ian shouts down, "I think this one's okay". Since this whale of a pregnant lady was not following anyone up any sort of an embankment and I was pretty sure we were all going to expire from hypothermia I replied, "Great! Let's go!" This is, by far, the least imput I've had on a Christmas tree in our entire married life. A couple minutes later Ian comes down the side of a mountain hauling our tree:

After a little adjusting (it wasn't until we got it home that we realized it was over 12 feet tall) and a little heat (to get rid of the ice stuck on each branch) we were able to set it up in our front room. The house smells oh-so-Christmasy and the girls had a fabulous time decorating it. I'm not sure we'll attempt this venture again until the kids are a little older...but for now we are simply enjoying feeling like we've entered the Christmas season in full swing once and for all!