"Christmas Vacation" Lappe Style...

On Saturday, we set out on the 2nd annual hunt to cut down the Lappe/Diehl family Christmas tree. We got kind of a late start, and the roads were a little less than optimal...

But none the less, we continued on our trek. Turns out, the 4-wheel drive is broken on the Ford, so once we make it up this steep narrow road...

we had to park the truck and continue our adventure on foot.

After hiking about a mile and a half up the hill in the snow, we FINALLY got to an elevation where the pine trees grow. Apparently "just around the corner up here" is Erik's way of keeping me going, rather than throwing myself in the snow and making snow angels instead.

TA DA!! Here 'tis

And here's Erik chopping it down, while I stand downhill from it to take photos (probably not the smartest place to stand). As you can tell. this is the part where the photos start to get a little blurry b/c I was shivering so much... Negative degrees, no gloves, and a snow storm apparently aren't optimal conditions for a photo opp.

At this point it was getting pretty dark, still freezing, and we had to hike the same mile and a half back to the truck (in more snow than was there before). We tried to be nice to the tree and carry it, but as it turns out, Erik has much longer legs than me and is not capable of walking slowly down a hill... So he had to drag it the rest of the way.

Good thing I had Hot Chocolate waiting for me in the truck when we got back! The whole story sounds a bit treacherous, I know, but it was actually lot of fun :)

AND here is our beauty-ful (8 foot tall) tree in our lovely little house! No ornaments yet, I know.

Hope you all have a very merry holiday season!