Tree Time!

I just got off the phone with one of my Paraguayan friends, Pedro.  I told him that we are enjoying the snow here in Upstate New York to which he replied, "Our seasons are completely opposite!  Here it is sweltering hot and we are sitting down drinking ice cold terere!"  Hot and humid are some of the words that come to mind at Christmas time in Paraguay.  Because of the climate there live Christmas trees are not available.  Last year when I dug our artificial tree out from storage we found most of the mounts for the branches had broken.  I attempted to prop them up using zip ties but it remained a sad reminder that the best we could do was dream of a white Christmas.  But once every five years Sarah and I bring our family back to Upstate New York where we grew up and where Christmases are white and this is going to be one of those Christmases for our family!

Our younger children have enjoyed several 'firsts' since we've returned to the United States like their first time seeing snow, their first time sledding, their first time building a snow man and their first time cutting down a Christmas tree. One Saturday after it had snowed for several days we piled all six of our 'Howdy's' into the van and took them to Darlings Christmas Tree Farm.  The last time we cut down a tree at Darling's was for Eli's first Christmas and appropriately this will be Haley's first Christmas. Upon arriving we were given a sled and hacksaw and Judah, Silas, and Sammie promptly jumped into the sled.  Daddy pulled them along as the rest of us tromped through foot-deep powder.  Snow clung to the pine trees like frosting.  We hunted between rows of hundreds of Fraser, Concolor, Canaan and Grand Firs, Blue Spruce and Whilte Pines.  They all smelled wonderful and so many looked perfect it was tough to make a choice.

When we spotted a tree we liked I would give it a shake and inevitably some snow would find its way down the back of my shirt.  But the cold didn't dampen our spirits.  This was what Sarah and I love about Christmas and we were so glad for the opportunity to share it with our children.  When Judah's fingers went numb and he began to scream it was only a temporary distraction from the awe and wonder of the experience.  Toby wielded the saw like a lumberjack in his blaze orange snow pants.  As we hiked deeper into the trees the sled would occasionally capsize in the deep snow dumping the kids.  Eventually we spotted a tall short needled pine tree down by the creek.   Eli rounded it inspecting the tree from all sides.  After some deliberation we decided that though is wasn't the perfect tree it was perfect for us.  As the boys and I dug down into the snow to cut the trunk some more snow went down my back.

Judah and Silas had to be content to hike as we proudly pulled our tree back up to the barn in the sled.  When we got there we were told that the tree we had chosen was a Fraser Fir.  The kids laughed as the tree wiggled around in a machine that shook off all of the snow.  Finally it was bound and tied to our van's roof rack while we moved inside the barn where there was hot cider and cookies.  We decided to give our Christmas tree a 'candy cane' theme with red and white lights, ornaments and of course; lots of candy canes. This Christmas the smell of a live pine tree fills the house and it is indeed beginning to look a lot like Christmas... or at least a North American one.