New Tradition....

If you know me well, you know I love my family traditions! For about 18 Christmas seasons now, since Kellen was little, one of our favorite traditions has been to go as a family to cut down our Christmas tree at Woodbee Tree farm. You can see my annual holiday posts since I began in 2007, then 2008, 2009, and last year's hail trip (trip down memory lane...check out how much the kids have grown!). The only year I think we missed was 2004, since we were spending Christmas in China adopting Kaia we did not put up a tree that year. We always enjoyed some hot cider around the fire, Christmas music playing, petting Randolph, and of course, seeing Santa.

Which brings me to today. Not even an hour before heading out for this season's trip with the entire family, I noticed a friends' facebook post that Woodbee's had closed. What? Darn that recession! Doesn't anyone know you can't mess with tradition? So we reluctantly packed in the van and head off to explore another local u-cut farm. Below you can see Mike and I lovingly leading the pack...

The kids were having a great time playing tag amongst the trees as Mike and I searched for just the right tree (We never worry about losing our kids in public, as we can always hear them a mile away).

Josh never put down the saw the entire time. Guess he doesn't know that "Don't run with scissors and knives!" applies to blades also.

Notice anything missing from the photo below?

This was us leaving, and the only thing Josh didn't use his saw on was our tree. After spending nearly an hour looking at every tree on this big tree farm, we didn't pick any! Each one we stopped to look at either had a "sold" sign on it, was too yellow in color, or had such an awkward trunk that there was no way we could squeeze it into our stand. Not to mention the girls were completely disappointed that there was no Santa. So we piled back into the van, drove back into town, and pulled over at the first lot we came to. We happened to see one at Skagit Farmers Supply, so we pulled over and saw the most beautiful Oregon trees that I had been missing since my childhood! We quickly picked out a beautiful six foot Grand Fir and bungeed it to the top of our van. What made it even sweeter, was that the trees were being sold to raise funds for an orphanage in Thailand. Turns out there is an organization here on the island called Displaced Orphans International that was selling the trees.

Don't they look tired from cutting down this tree? At least we spent the afternoon together, and I was truly happy to give up our family tradition to support a worthy cause. In fact, I hope that they become a part of our new family tradition!