The Annual visit to Powesheik Pines!

We made our annual trip to the Christmas tree farm last Friday afternoon. It was perfect because my sister was able to come for the weekend so she watched Tyce (since he was getting over a bit of a cold) while Jeff, Jase and I were able to go find our Christmas Tree. I honestly don't know if this is more fun for Jeff or Jase, but they both seemed pretty excited about it.
Jase of course loved running in, out, and through all the trees. Luckily Jeff is
6'5" and was able to see his little head bobbing up and down throughout the rows of trees. If it were just me, Jase would have been long gone, as you all know I am just over 5ft. Once we were finished finding the "perfect" Bates Christmas tree, it was time to cut it down. They give you the option of cutting it down yourself or they would be happy to do it for you. Oh not my hubby, he has to do it all! And did I mention we chose a tree probably the farthest away you could get from the entrance where we parked, and we didn't have anything to carry the tree back on. Jeff had to carry it over his shoulder the entire way back :). Oh what a lovely time it was! It really wasn't that bad and Jase was able to feed the reindeer and have a candy cane, which he didn't care for all that much.

Note to self - he does not like the peppermint candy canes.

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Once we made it back home, it was time to put up the tree. Yes, since I am talking about us...the Bates family...we don't always have the best luck as you can see. Putting up the tree was a bit of a challenge. The stoop of the tree was too skinny for the screws to hold it up (if any of you get a real tree you know what I am talking about)so we once again had to cut the skinny part of the stoop to the thicker part to make it thick enough for the screws to reach and to hold the tree up. This took oh about an hour and a half to do! Thank goodness my sister was here to watch the kiddos. And I am sure she got a good laugh out of me holding the tree up with all my might, while Jeff is on the ground yelling (did I say yelling?), I meant telling me what to do.
When all was said and done, the Bates Family Christmas Tree is up and it couldn't be prettier!




And there it is!

The final product! Please disregard the lean to it :)