oh christmas tree farm

The Elgin Christmas Tree Farm has become one of our best holiday traditions. We absolutely love riding out to the trees on a tractor pulled trailer, roaming around in a field of evergreens, searching for the perfect tree, cutting down said tree, feeding the farm animals, and stopping to eat at Meyer's BBQ on the way home with a tree tied to the top of our car. 

This year, we left a bit earlier than usual, so we ate before we did our tree hunting.  Grace has recently discovered that she loves smoked pork ribs. 

My kids don't know that white bread exists outside of bbq restaurants, so Carter believes we stop by Meyer's to worship their white bread. 

After we fueled up on ribs, sausage, turkey, pork steak, pickles, creamed corn and all the beans we could eat, we hit the tree farm. 

Carter was so happy to be searching for a tree, he busted a few dance moves. 

Grace and Carter were very interested in finding a tree that was exactly the same size as each of them.  There were quite a few small trees at the farm, and we did see lots of trees that didn't survive the summer. 

After searching several different fields of trees, we finally found a tree that we knew would be perfect for our living room. 

The kids are anxiously waiting for Ray to cut our tree down.  You can see the saw at the bottom of the tree. 

This was all very exciting and we were happy to have found a tree, but I was thrilled beyond belief to have gotten tons of great pictures for this year's Christmas cards!  Every year I try to take card pictures at the tree farm, but most years I fail miserably. 

Lighting conditions are tough with bright sun and deep shade, wind is always an issue, and most of the time the kids are acting more like wild animals than children.  But somehow, today was different.  I captured the perfect card cover shot in only three takes. 

Standing next to our freshly cut tree.  Carter would want me to point out the he is, in fact, holding the saw. 

Of course I'm not including any of my card pictures on this post.   I had so many good pics that I wound up putting a picture on the front of the card, three pics on the inside of the card, and even a picture on the back.  I was in happy picture heaven. 

Meanwhile, our 9 and a half foot Virginia pine tree is relaxing in the garage.  We always bring the tree home, set it up, and let it drink water in the garage for a day or two before we bring it inside and decorate it.  That way we make the tree excitement last just a little longer.