Trixie's and Trees 2012

 We went on our annual tree-cutting expedition with our neighborhood, and as usual we went to Trixie's to eat before tromping through the woods.  Trixie's never changes - thank goodness!

 John pretending to be shocked, Steve obliging the photographer, and the rest of the table chatting.

 Our intrepid group - it was the warmest day we'd ever gone tree-hunting, but it had been pretty rainy earlier in the day and we were so happy to walk out of Trixie's and find things clearing up!

 We couldn't get all the cars up the hill, so we parked and hiked.

 Since we had not yet had any snow at home the girls were both outright thrilled to see even these few inches.  Clara laid herself right down to make snow angels!

 And pretended to fall asleep.

 Elena was slightly less goofy, but only slightly less!

 

 And Steve was ready to go and claim our tree.

 Elena was all muscles this year, helping Linda carry her tree out (and later helping Steve, too).

 We had some trouble selecting the tree this year.  We wanted to get one that stood tall as soon as we went in the forest, but the girls had other ideas.  After tromping through the forest for some time we realized we ALL wanted that first one, but we couldn't find it again!

 The tromping about was fun, though.

 And the girls discovered "baby trees" that they got to nestle and speak sweet words to.

 Eventually Clara ditched us to go back to the rest of the group with Linda.  It was our first taste of not being cool enough for us to hang out with (and Christina didn't take it all that well) but she later explained that she was just going back so she could get to the cookies early.

 Elena stuck with the quest until we found just the right tree.

 Timber!

 He hunted down a beauty!

 Christina chose to snuggle with a beauty instead.

 \

 Here's the promised shot of Elena carrying half the tree out with Steve.

 Now, in fairness to Clara, the cookies and hot chocolate are worth rushing back out to.  Linda makes these wonderfully each year, and it is a welcome treat once we all get back together again from finding our trees.

 The view was beautiful from our cookie spot this year.

 

 We tried to take a family picture in front of it, but the girls were feeling pretty goofy, so it didn't end up quite as we imagined.

 One last slide on the snow before we left.

 And a check that we get the fire out before we try to dump the coals in the snow.

Though there are times when the trip is a bit, um, challenging for some of us it is still awesome to be with neighbors and to see a tree we found and cut down in our living room.  Here's to tradition!