It's a nice little tree

Joyeaux Noel!

Is this not a cute little picture? These are my three men, all hauling in the lovely Christmas Tree that is now adorning our living area. We decided last Sunday to go in search of a tree. Two years in a row now, we've been on our way to cut a tree in a town a bit away. There aren't as many cut-your-own tree places as there used to be, so we've been traveling a bit further each year. This year, we had a destination in mind, but thought as we did last year, if something promising pops up, well, we'll try that. As we were driving our way out to the tree farm, we passed by a sign for Green Tree Farm. Looked promising, so we took a side road to find out what it was all about. Pulled in, found the sign said they were getting out of the tree business (sigh) and that they only had cut-your-own this year (perfect, just what we were after) and all trees are $35.00 (within our budget). We needed to go in search of an ATM machine as I did not plan for this excursion ahead of time. Got the necessary funds and returned to the farm.

As we walked down the snowy lane, we came across a tree all decorated for us. There, I took the sweetest picture of the boys in front of the snowy tree. And yes, it is honoring the front of our Christmas cards this year. I was truly hoping to get snow (we did!) before we got our tree as I really need it to be snowy to enjoy the process to it's fullest. Then we found an honest to goodness blessing. Music Man pointed out to me that sometimes when you don't plan everything down to the letter (we rarely do), you have wonderful experiences. We happened upon this farm and met some truly nice people, got to pet a Christmas donkey (and Morgan Horse) and enjoy the stunning rolling hill beauty of their farm. It was peaceful, lovely and just one of those perfect moments in life. The boys got to throw big snowballs into a little pond, Music Man and I wandered around choosing the right tree (which for a change was so easy to do, we had to narrow it down from all the perfect ones!), and enjoyed the moment for all it was worth.

As we wandered back out up the lane towards the cars, hand in hand with our happy, chattering offspring wondering over lots of things, like the reindeer crossing sign (Little Red pointing out to me that not only SANTA has reindeer, you know), the tracks in the snow, and the beauty of their surroundings, I felt truly blessed. To live in such a gorgeous place, to have happened on such a fun moment, and to have met some new people in town, oh, that's a bit of perfection. I had peace in my soul on that walk back to the car, and felt honored to be part of that snapshot in time with my family.

May you have such blessings for your soul this holiday season,

~Peacemom