Cutting Down our Christmas Tree

Cutting Down Our Tree

We didn’t get a Christmas Tree last year so this year I decided we had to cut our own down. I went to the trusty uPick webpage that has yet to steer us wrong and found a nice place in Santa Clarita.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we headed into LA to see family. We met them at the Santa Monica peer and walked around for a bit. There is a little known aquarium under the peer that costs only a $2 donation and you can touch just about anything in there. It’s a bit overpriced for adults – but if you have little ones it is the perfect afternoon distraction. The Pier has plenty of offer in stores, amusements and people watching. We grabbed a very late lunch at Bubba Gump's on the Pier – and while we typically avoid chain restaurants we were pleasantly surprised. The food was delicious and the service was great. I am not sure where the time went but before we knew it it was time to head back to Edwards.

We decided, despite the sinking sun, that we would hit the “cut your own tree” place on our way home. We pulled into the parking lot at “Nancy’s” which is just beyond the mall. Under giant power lines brining power into the city is a small tree farm. We were taken by surprise to find that while the already cut section featured Frasier and noble furs apparently only Monterey pines grow locally. We are all about buying local so we decided we would cut our own Monterey Pine. We chose a little one that would fit in the back of the Matrix without a problem. With the sun almost completely down Jeff cut down our tree. We were then offered a range of services such as fire proofing, needle shaking and bagging. We chose simply to lay the tree in the back of the car and head home.

The tree is now set up in our house – it looks lovely. Decorating it was a bit of a mess. The Monterey Pine is a longer needled tree that seemed to impale us every time we attempted to put an ornament on it. Regardless it looks lovely and we are excited to have a local tree. I’m thinking next year we will just follow the neighbors lead and pick our tree up from the Boy Scouts at the BX.