We went on our first family Christmas tree hunt on Saturday. There was no tears, no whining, no yelling and no one cut their finger off with the saw. It was a great success. It was a spontaneous trip, which are as rare as hen's teeth in our family of two preschoolers, a stage manager and a planner. But we did it. We had intended to go to a local lot, pick out a tree and be done with it, but the the lure of a long-held wish of mine proved to strong.


I have a vague memory of going to "the" mountain with my sisters and various assorted family members and friends when I first moved to the Pacific NW. I don't know if it's romance of the passage of time that makes it a or the the spiked hot cocoa. Either way, it's been a wish of mine to take my children up the mountain to recreate a sort of Walton's mountain Christmas tree hunt adventure (don't kid yourselves, you know John and Grandpa had some of the Baldwin sisters' "recipe" with them on those cold winter days)

As I thought about various ways to propose this adventure to the troops the stage manager/worrier/practical/boring side of me began to gnaw at my conscious. There are so many things that can go wrong on an adventure like this (do we learn nothing from the evening news people!) And it really would take us about 2 hours to get the appropriate clothing lined up, provisions, maps, permits, books for the car, Christmas cds to listen to, and "damn, did N take a potty break", "Where's L's pink blankie" on and on... I could envision us in our old, smelly, w/no tire chains car getting half way to the mountains only to realize we had no earthly idea what the hell we were doing.... Somehow the spontaneous magic was fading.

What to do, what to do. Obviously we could grab the little red wagon and trek on over to Fred Meyer or Walgreens, pay the clerk with the Santa hat and a cranky attitude some money and call it good. We could drive to a local neighborhood lot walk up and down the rows of trees pulling them out one by one and turning and posing them. (it's a science people!) All the while trying to keep fun alive in a parking lot for two small children who are wrapped up in the magic of the season this year.

Nope none of those ideas appealed. So, a quick googling of "Christmas trees Oregon" gave me the perfect compromise. There staring back at me was the golden ticket. A tree farm on Sauvie Island where we could let the kids run loose and we could pick our tree- fresh. And hell ,it would already be standing, so we could walk around it, viewing on all sides, to make sure it was perfect. Throw in a $5 off coupon and I was sold!

Off we went! Properly bundled from the elements, a quick stop at coffee shop for caffeine and a sweet treat for the kids. I found the 24-7 Christmas music station and the scene was set for a lovely outing.

"Are we going to the pumpkin patch" "Can I pick the apples" "Oooh, can I climb the hay pyramid again" "where's the corn maze" Hmmm, guess we spend a lot of time on Sauvie Island thru out the year. Careful explanation of where we were going, with repeated telling of same information, finally sunk it. "ohhh, it's a Christmas tree farm" "What's a Christmas tree farm?" "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer!!"

It was a small farm, and their first year in operation. It was not crowded at all. Patrick got the law of the land and the saw

N and L grabbed the tree wagon and the fun began.

Now I'd like to say we spent hours chasing each other around the trees shrouded in mist. I'd like to say the adventure lasted longer then drive to Sauvie Island. But the truth is, we trooped into the tree field, looked at about 6 trees. Spotted the tree we liked, took some photos, Patrick cut the tree down and voila we were done. We paid for our tree, kids got candy canes and we headed home. It was a perfect trip!