Christmas Tree Day -- my favorite day of the year! There are a lot of reasons why this day is so special to me. I have so many wonderful memories of this day as a child -- cramming into pick-up trucks on laps of my older cousins, singing songs obnoxiously and making plans to own our own Holiday Farm someday (which I still think is a solid idea). Our family has evolved a lot in my 27 years of life, and we don't see each other nearly as often as I wish we could. But this day still hasn't changed. Sure, we don't go to the tree farm in illegally packed vehicles anymore, and the location of the farm has even changed three times. But the spirit remains. It marks the beautiful passage of time as each year we can marvel at how we are all different in some ways but essentially the same. The kids are taller. Derick finally remembers the electric saw he promises himself to bring next year. The trees are more bushy. The weather is more or less cool. The huge Husky dog that greets us is still sweet and beautiful and giant. Some can't make it so years. Other years new people join us.
And now I have the added bonus of not having to play by my dad's schedule anymore, and therefore the tree goes up immediately :). I love the smell of pine filling the room, the joy of unwrapping the ornaments, and warm fuzzies you get the first time you turn out all the lights and the tree's light fills the room.
The weather this year was crazy warm, and many of us didn't even wear coats. Izzy had a great time running through the trees. Eva wasn't crazy about pictures, but we bullied her into a few. :)
