Of Mud and Christmas Trees

In the spirit of Chevy Chase's "Christmas Vacation", we decided this past weekend to search the mountains for the "Bryson Family Christmas Tree." We piled into Dave's truck and drove up to the Jemez mountains to start our search. The scenery was beautiful...the colors bright and bold. Did I mention the colors were beautiful because it was pouring rain? The weatherman had forecasted snow for the mountains, so we had visions of tramping through the snow, singing Christmas carols, and finding the perfect tree. (Well, to be honest, Dave probably had no visions of Christmas carols, but I did!) Instead there was mud everywhere! But, the children wanted to cut their own tree, and we weren't going to turn around after an hour and a half of hearing "Are we there yet?" So we donned our jackets, hats, and gloves and set out. We quickly realized that the same features that made the area we picked beautiful (namely big rocky canyons) also made it nearly impossible to hike easily. After about twelve steps, our boots were caked with mud and we were slipping all over the rocks.

Eventually, we did find the "perfect" tree (at least as perfect as you can get growing in the mountains!) Dave and Garrett went to work cutting it, and Garrett was beside himself with joy at being able to use the saw all by himself!!! So, our trip was not the picture card experience we wished for, but it was definitely memorable! Instead of Christmas carols, we made funny voices as we bumped over the washboard roads. Here are a few pictures of our tree and a few extras from Garrett's birthday. (P.S. I know that Garrett's icing on his cake was pink and he's a boy. But how else can you get the strawberry flavor he wanted?? We "masculinized" it with Spiderman decorations!)

Christmas Trees