Our Christmas Tree Adventure: Cutting It Down Griswold Style!

In the words of Clark W. Griswold “We're kicking off our fun old fashion family Christmas by heading out into the country in the old front-wheel drive sleigh to embrace the frosty majesty of the winter landscape and select that most important of Christmas symbols.”

(warning: this blog has lots of Chrismas Vacation quotes, we love that movie during Christmas!)

That’s right! Alex and I took the DIY approach for our Christmas tree- we found one and cut it down ourselves! We went to the Rum River Tree Farm in Anoka, it was HUGE! Rows and fields of trees everywhere! The best part?  You can cut a real tree for only $30-$50 bucks!  Cheaper than in a tree lot because they don't have to be cut and shipped anywhere.

We thought it would be a neat experience to cut down our own tree this Christmas. The alternative would be to use the sad little fake tree from our apartment days.  Also, we decided not to get a tree from a tree lot because according to Clark Griswold "They invented them (tree lots)  because people forget to have a good old family Christmas and are satisfied with scrawny, dead, overpriced trees that have no special meaning!" Haha!  I know that's not true (I have good memories of my mom and dad taking taking my sister and I to pick out a tree from a lot each year), but the quote is still funny!

We decided on this Norway Pine for $35, looked like it would be perfect in our house and a little different than the usual trees we see since it has the long needles. We took a photo of us with our future Christmas tree with our cute little nephew Henri (we all sported flannels as well to feel that Lumberjack vibe, haha)!

Here is our staged ‘chopping it down’ photo (the tree looks pretty sad and uneven from this side, the other side is the cute side).

After cutting it down, Alex proudly hauled our tree to the car! (Is it just me or does Alex's head look larger than the rest of his body, like it is detatched?)

Thankfully they shake the trees so any loose branches and pine needles (or squirrels) come off.

So we won’t have this Griswold moment going on… “SQUUUIIIIRRRREEELLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Once Alex cut the net and let the tree free again I could only think of another Clark W. Griswold quote, “Lotta sap in here! Mmmm... Looks great! Little full, lotta sap”, haha! That is one down side to the real trees, they do have some sap and needles that fall, but man it smells great in our house!

I will post pics of our decorated Christmas tree and house on Thursday (tomorrow!), check back!