Halloween 2008 & The Christmas Tree Tale

So, I'm behind, ofcourse...I did warn you, after all, that I'm not good at keeping up with these things. But here are some fun ones. And as soon as I get Thanksgiving day pics...I'll post some of those, too. Here is Halloween (which we are all grateful to be over) and "The Veasey Family Christmas Tree". We truly went all out this year. We took a good friends advice and travelled the 3 hour there and 3 hour back distance to Vernal Utah where we paid $10 for a permit to go into the Ashley National Forest and cut down our very own tree. Well...hind sight is always 20/20! :o) We got a bit of a late start, due to our having just flown in from CO that morning and our own indicision as to whether or not we were actually going to go through with this. We finally decided to go ahead with it. We got to the permit place and bought our permit and had to go back in to ask for better directions (you should've seen the map they gave us). We then wound through the mountains for about 45 minutes as dusk decended upon us with a slight rainy drizzle. Finally we thought, it's now or never...so we go out of the car, quite literally on the side of the mountain, and began our search for the perfect tree. We were unsuccessful at finding our tree at that spot. It was wickedly cold and the breeze was just whipping through us. We jumped in the car and continued through the mountain. By now, it's full on dark!! We decide to be adventurous and do some off roading (after all, that's likely to be the best spot for trees anyway). Rick gets out to scout out anything promising...see, everything that was full and beautiful was quite a bit too large. The limit was for a 15 foot tree...you weren't aloud to cut anything taller than that. So we'd see a lovely tree and walk up to it and it would inevitably be like 25 feet tall at least. All the smaller trees truly looked like Charlie Brown trees. Anywho...as Rick was coming back with no luck...we both spotted a tree right next to our car on the other side. We both got out (with the flashlight) and took a look as best we could. Now, full disclosure, we did notice a few bald spots...but decided we refused to go home empty handed and this one was the best of the lot we had looked at thus far. We got all excited, got the kids out of the car, got the saw and Rick began sawing that puppy down...Brookie held the flashlight, what a great helper!! Kendall was out for a few minutes and quickly wanted back in the car...I suppose it was snowing by this point. TIMBER!!! The tree comes down beautifully...what a pro...looked like we'd done this for years! :o) Rick and I hoist that tree on top of our car and tie it down with string and electrical wire...we Floridians use what we've got!! A couple of proud moment pictures and we're on our way home...as soon as we stop for some grub, oh and a tree stand from Lowes, oh and yeah...we did have to stop a few times to button down the hatches and make sure our tree was sliding off the car! 3 hours back home and Rick almost hits a deer. He was totally paranoid the whole trip home because of the number of dead deer on the side of the road that weren't there on our trip up. So, we finally get home, put the kiddies to bed, as you can imagine, they had zonked out in the car. We got a bucket of water and took down the beauty. We got our first real look at our conquest. It was quite a beast!!! There are so many bald spots...the tree (and I mean the limbs) was in the true shape of an S. There is no way round it. Rick questions whether we should just chuck it and go down the lane and buy a tree from Joe Shmoe. I say NoWay...after all of that, we are darn going to use this tree and love it!!! So we set it up and decorate it, quite hysterical. Ofcourse, the girls are none the wiser...they think it quite the best Christmas tree ever. And so it is...because of the memories. It's a dear little tree, but not without it's major flaws. In fact, it completely fell over the other day and is now still leaning against the window until we can properly fishing line it to the ceiling. All said and done, we are in love with the memories and will plan ahead next year and make this a yearly tradition. We love you all and are thinking about you so much. Enjoy your holiday season.