Cutting the tree

We went out to Pea Ridge to cut our Christmas tree today. This a yearly tradition that we have done with Molly & Tim Bosch for as long as we have been in St Louis. We haven't been to Pea Ridge for a few years, but it's a cool place to get a tree from as they have a big barn with a Santa and another where they sell a few ornaments, have an enormous fire and serve free hot chocolate. It was only 20 degrees when we got there and the kids went immediately to visit Santa

In the same barn, they have a huge rocking chair that all the kids like to sit in. This is Ben & Maggie sitting with Anne.

When we got out to the field, we started looking for a suitable tree.

Luckily, the sun came out while we were cutting down the trees and it warmed the day up by about 10 degrees

We found a tree way at the top of the hill. I was looking for one that had room between the branches so that the ornaments would hang off it well. This was the one that we chose, Ben said it was too small so he refused to stand in front of it and get his picture taken.

They had flat bed trailers to get us out to the field. Ben and Maggie just had to sit right at the back of the trailer


It was so cold outside that we were very grateful to find this fire in the barn

The finished project looks good. Ben helped me with the lights, but I was pretty much left to do everything else myself.