Dewberry Farm

This year Travis and I decided to start a family tradition - going to cut down our own Christmas tree. Fun, right? Well, maybe not so much with a baby that does not have the ability to walk yet. We did have a good time laughing about how silly it all was though.

I had heard good things about this farm north of Houston. They have a pumpkin patch where you can pick your own pumpkin in the fall. Then they open the end of the farm with the Christmas trees for you to come cut your own. There are places like that all over in Illinois. Not so much close to the coast in Texas. We drove an hour and a half to get to this place. About 30 minutes into our drive it started raining. Free time is scarce in our lives, so we decided to trudge on.

When we get to the farm and are unloading the stroller and baby, Travis asks if I brought a jacket for Aiden.

"No! Did you?!?!"

"Nope."

Great. So now it's cold and rainy and we're just going to throw Aiden out into it to see if he can survive. Ugh. Travis had an extra jacket in the truck, so we placed that in the stroller, then sat Aiden on top of it. I piled the blankets on top of Aiden, threw on his hat and gloves and we were off.

Needless to say, Aiden did not seem very thrilled about the whole thing. He didn't move the entire walk into the farm or the whole hayride out to the trees.

We sipped on complimentary hot chocolate and took in the scenery on the hayride... pumpkin patch cemetery...

When it came time to chop down our chosen tree, however, Aiden was ready for a nap. We only brought the umbrella stroller as we thought that would be easier to maneuver on the hayride and through the trees. I believe we were right in thinking this. The problem came when Aiden needed a nap, but the stroller didn't recline for him.

I ended up holding him horizontally so he could sleep. That means there are some blurry photos ahead. There were so many more shots I wish I could have gotten on the way back, what with Travis carrying the saw and tree and me carrying the baby and stroller. WOW.

We just got a short tree. The taller ones were SO expensive. Plus, we only have 8-foot ceilings anyway. I think next year we might try a short needle fir for the first time.

While we may have a short, gangly tree this year, I have to say that thing is GREEN. If we were playing the One-of-These-Things-Is-Not-Like-the-Other game, the answer would have been our Christmas tree in the middle of the garage. And man can that thing guzzle some water! Travis has been completely refilling the tree stand every night.

I am hoping this means I'll have less pine needles to pick up when we carry the tree out after Christmas!