It was a frigid -8 degrees last year on our tree day, but we had an idyllic adventure and came home with a the best Christmas tree ever.

This year it was a whopping 47 degrees warmer and drizzling rain.  Ice is no fun to walk or drive on, so we preferred the colder temperatures from last year!

I was anxious about driving on the icy roads, but (spoiler alert) we made it home safely with a tree that made us proud.  We picked it out during a family outing back in October.  In a typical Alaskan December, trees are buried in snow and it’s hard to identify the best specimens.  We check out the trees when they are still bare, then flag a few favorites on a GPS and cross our fingers no one chops them down before Christmas.

This winter has been anything but typical, and we hardly have any snow.  I’m still glad we scoped out a tree in advance.  It cut down on time spent wandering around the wet forest!

Maggie was in charge of the GPS, and she successfully marched us straight to our tree.

We were wet, but victorious!

Back home, things didn’t go quite as planned.  I had a roast in the crock pot, with the hope that our evening could focus on decorating the tree rather than kitchen chores.  But the neighbor kids swarmed us the minute we pulled into the driveway, and before I knew it Sam and Maggie were off to a trampoline park.  They ended up late for dinner, the roast was dry, and we ran out of time for trimming the tree.

I was noooooooot happy, but after some tears and a few “family meetings” we rallied and decorated the tree a few days later.  The star fell apart (which is just as well, because the kids are getting too big for Clark to lift) so we topped it with a Santa hat instead.    It turned out to be a fine way to spend a Tuesday evening.

The kids hung the first ornament together:  the Hogwarts crest that we picked up at Harry Potter World last summer.

We kept the decorations to a minimum, and let this beauty of a tree shine on her own.  As usual, it’s plugged into The Clapper.  Everyone likes to “clap on” and “clap off.”

Good times.  Good memories.  Good tradition.  Good tree.