One of my favorite Christmas Adventures is to play in the snow and choose a Christmas tree. James and I haven't had the space for a real Christmas tree in our apartments in Utah, so we didn't make the effort for a few years. But this year, we need a tree!
(To answer one of Oma's questions - we didn't buy a tree permit. I don't know if our trees are legal or not, because I don't know the laws in Alaska. And I don't know if we were on forest service land or private land or native land or some other designation. But every car we saw coming back down the road had a tree.)
After church, we drove out the Copper River Highway. It snowed a lot on Saturday and Sunday morning, so the road was only plowed out to the airport (13 miles). Then turned onto an unplowed road out toward Cabin Lake - the same road we went down for firewood a month or so ago. Lincoln fell asleep as we drove, so he missed the initial tromping-around-and-inspecting-trees. But he woke up and got dressed and participated in the felling of his first live Christmas tree.
Lincoln and Daddy near our pretty tree - the one in the front of the picture that has been cleared of some of it's snow.
McCalvy family - our tree is the one just behind us.
Serious snow! So light and fluffy! Linc didn't mind catching a ride when we went off road. The snow was mostly knee-deep, but we often stepped into tree wells or over logs and into thigh-high fluffiness. There weren't any hills nearby, so sledding would have been difficult. Snow-shoeing would have been a grand adventure, although it was pretty fun tromping around without snow shoes too. The snow was pretty deep on the road, so hooky-bobbing would have worked, with a look-out for any traffic - and 4-wheel drive - and high clearance - and expert drivers - and shovels for just in case.
Grandma and Tia Kathleen picked out a tree for their house too.
Lincoln loved brushing snow off of tree limbs. This tree had a big stump next to it, so Linc could stand on the stump and swat at the branches.
James and Grandpa comparing trees. I think Grandma's tree is too tall.
Lincoln didn't mind walking - in the tire tracks. When he wanted to change lanes, he'd ask for help and someone would lift him across the snow barrier in the middle.
Lincoln and Tia Kathleen
Tie-ing down the trees was so, so easy this year. We just plopped both trees into the back of "Little John", no ropes, no straps.
After the trees were loaded, the hot tomato soup was passed around and Grandma's forester headed back home, Lincoln still wanted to walk down the road and brush snow off the trees. So we spent an extra half-an-hour playing. We really missed having a hot swimming pool to play in once it got dark, but it was a grand adventure.
