We decided to try out a new way to pick out our very own Christmas tree this year, so we headed northwest to Mehaffey Tree Farm in Waynesville, NC to shop for one. Have you ever had an idea in your head about how perfect something is going to be only to have reality crush that dream? Well, that's pretty much how this day went. The good news is that we got a tree. The bad news is that I was too ill to enjoy much of this day, sadly.
Why, you ask? Well, Braxton decided that he didn't like his car seat on this particular day, so we spent a total of four hours on the road listening to him scream and trying to calm him down. Aside from the mountain views, the tree farm was just that: a tree farm. I was expecting Christmasy decor and magic all around, but that was certainly not the case. To make it even less magical, Braxton decided that he wanted to scream + whine while we hunted for a tree, too. After we loaded up our tree and hit the road towards home, poor communication between TJ + me made things worse (you know how sometimes your thoughts don't ever come out of your mouth, but you totally thought that they did? that's what caused this lack of communication I'm referring to). Man oh man, what a day.
The pictures you're about to see don't show our frustrations, angry faces, and tears, which is why I wanted to share what our day really looked like first. Social media gives me the ability to take these photos and simply say, "We had a wonderful day picking out a Christmas tree!" and that's what many of us do. As much as I would like to rewrite this day I can't, so I may as well give you the facts and say that I hope we don't have another day like this for a looooong time. Parenthood is teaching me that our days don't have to be all smiles, rainbows, and laughter to still be good, and this is just one example of that. There was one perk to all the madness, though...because of all the not-so-fun events this day was made of, we "broke the rules" and decorated our bungalow for Christmas that night. We've never decorated our bungalow before Thanksgiving before, but it provided some much-needed cheer that helped us end our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day with some sighs of relief.
Without further ado, I give you pictures of beautiful landscapes, rows of Fraser Firs, and smiles that were hoping for the best despite the chaos that abounded.
Here's to hoping that next year's tree-picking extravaganza isn't as crazy as this year's was!
What is it about picking out a Christmas tree that has moms seeing the perfect bonding/tradition option, but somehow reality always is a long/traffic-filled drive with rain/tantrums/poor communication and a tree that looks exactly like ones they sell at Home Depot for twice the cost ;) We've been there, done that; hang in there, there will come that day when you see the magic reflected in their eyes and it's all water under the bridge.
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