Tree Trek 2012

We now live in the Christmas Tree capital of the world, and yet we had to buy our tree.   It was a bit sad this year not to be able to go out with the whole Gates family, tromping through the snow and cutting down a tree.  Here there is no place that you can go to  cut a tree down from the woods.  You either have to go to a Christmas Tree farm and buy one from there (which you at least can cut down yourself) or any supermarket or store around here sells them.   So this year we had a new "Gates Family Tree Trek" experience and went to Home Depot for our tree.

I do have to say that the tree is way nicer looking then the ones from the AK woods.  There are a few things I really do appreciate about the real trees here, even if you have to buy them.  I love that it actually fits in the tree stand without having to add lots of wood pieces just to hold it up (AK trees have very skinny trunks) and I also love that we can hang as many lights and ornaments as we want without it falling over.

We did have a fun time as a family getting it set it up and decorated it.  Neal loved unwrapping the ornaments and hanging them all up (he liked hanging them all together on about 5 different branches). When we were done I asked Neal "How do you like the Christmas Tree" and he responded "Where is the star mommy?"  We then showed him that our tree has a bitty angle for the top (Gates' Family tradition) and Neal loved watching daddy reach all the way up to place the bitty angle on the very top.

Since we didn't get a fun trek through the woods and snow we decided to have a special "Tree Trek" christmas doughnut on the way home from our tree purchasing day.

I don't think we will be getting our tree from Hope Depot each year, 'cause part of the fun is getting to cut it down yourself, but getting a holiday doughnut after the "Tree Trek" is a tradition I am sure we will keep :)