Christmas Tree Farm 2017

I am real tree girl through and through. I have always grown up with real Christmas trees, usually something like a Douglas Fir. The smells and the tradition of cutting down a fir tree have a special place in my heart and in my childhood memories.

Last year, we had a tough time finding a tree, it was expensive, the u-cut trees were sold out early, and our tree lost a lot of needles early on. My husband has been begging me to get an artificial tree for years, and so after Christmas last year, I caved. We bought a beautiful artificial tree, and this year we used it for the first time. And I don't hate it. In fact, I bought a second one for the family room. And some pine scented spray to make it seem somewhat real. 

I still wanted the tree farm experience (and photos ;) ), so we loaded up the kids the weekend after we had our third baby and headed to the tree farm. We had the whole tree farm to ourselves, and the owners were gracious enough to just let us play among the trees. It's one of my favorite Christmas memories we've made with the kids. We played hide-and-seek, my oldest made me take a photo of her with every tree that was her height,  and we started the tradition of buying a potted pine tree to put outside and to plant in our yard after Christmas. 

I'm a stickler for traditions, but sometimes when old traditions are broken, beautiful new traditions are made.