the goose loves tree hunting

Well I might finally be getting caught up around here. Incredible. You might even see another post later today...

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is getting the tree. When I was little, we'd drive to the mountains and cut down a tree with our cousins - I have plenty of fond memories of that. As we got older, we decided to go with local trees (i.e. Home Depot). As we got even older, we decided to go without a tree. Or I'd go get one barely a few days before Christmas, right when I got home from college.

Now that Billy and I are starting our own traditions in our own home, we're going back to the early days of cutting down our own tree. And I LOVE it.

We piled into the car the day after Thanksgiving, while everyone was going crazy with the shopping. Bentley is SO ready to go pick out a tree!

We drove to a tree farm in Oregon City, about 40 minutes from Portland. We were blessed with a gorgeously sunny day (rare, if you know Portland), even though it was fairly chilly. This was the same place we went last year, and were happy to give them some repeat business.

We were aiming for a 7-foot tree, and we both love the Noble kind - great looking branches and no plastic-looking leaves. Or needles. Whatever trees have. Bentley had fun sniffing the ground and peeing on trees he liked. Or maybe the ones he didn't like.

Mmmm, sticks.

Hey Mom, What about this one? It's my size!

Big Shake.

We found a nice tall full tree we liked, and tried to take some pictures next to it. The sun was so blinding, but we got a few. And no, Billy is not expecting a little one. He's just carrying around the measuring tape and his work gloves. :)

Bentley crossing his legs like a lady.

Dog butt.

Once we were sure we had The One, Billy cut it down with the saws they provided. I refrained from including the boxer-showing tree-cutting photo in this post. Nobody wants to see that.

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Look, Mount Hood!

They shook out our tree and baled it.

Then helped Billy carry it to the car, as Billy points out where the roof of the car is.

One tree for us!

After spending some time working out the best way to tie it to the roof, we decided it would fit inside the car, which was safer. So in it went!

Soon I'll have the full reveal of our beautifully decorated tree. It's super awesome. I love Christmas.