Baby, it's cold outside

The other bonus to hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year was that we got a jump start on picking out our Christmas tree! Before we left the house, it seemed like the best weather to-date. For Ryan's first Christmas two years ago it was so blistery cold we had him wrapped up like Ralphie's brother in A Christmas Story. We didn't even bother cutting our own tree down. We found the closest, nicest pre-cut tree there was and hightailed it out of there.

Last year, Nate was traveling - his last travel opportunity before Lindsey was born - so my parents came down to help Rye and I pick out a good tree. It snowed. And not the pretty, fluffy white snow that almost makes the whole experience seem more magical...it was wet, heavy, messy snow. To boot, Rye fell asleep on the way there. So my mom stayed in the car with him while me, my dad and my brother caught a (wet) hayride out to the fields, found a tree, cut it down and sloshed on back to the parking lot. 0 for 2.

This year, the sun was shining and the forecast seemed rather promising. Things were looking up! My parents were still down from Turkey day, so they once again joined us for the trek out to Schmidts Tree Farm. The coolest part about this farm? They have actual reindeer! Sadly, we learned when we got there that one of them had died. So there was only one - and he seemed lonely - but they're getting another one in from NY sometime later this year.

Reindeer are certainly a magical aspect of Christmas. Things were looking good. As we stood there talking to one of the workers, waiting for our (dry) hayride to the fields, we noticed it was pretty chilly. And though the sun was shining, the wind was brutal. "It's not that cold," he said. "It's not cold unless your snot freezes up between your nose and your mouth." Well...that's one way to measure the ambient temperature. It may not have been cold but it certainly wasn't warm either.

Luckily, we have two awesome kids who were so excited about the Christmas tree, they didn't even mind the temperature. In fact, Ryebread got to use his muscles and help Nate chop down the tree! And, when all was said and done and we found the perfect 2010 tree, we got to go inside to pay where free hot warm chocolate awaited us. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...