The last couple of years have been a bit of a struggle to have any holiday spirit. Two years ago, my Grandpa died and my family all went to Canada to celebrate his life together. While we did do a few traditions that year, it just didn't feel particularly Christmasy.
Then last year, we moved out of our house right before Christmas. We stayed at my sister's house in Nashville for a couple of weeks while we made the transition to Chattanooga. It just felt like an off year.
This year I am trying to rekindle my holiday spirit and reinstate our traditions.
While we lived in Alabama we started the tradition of going to the Thornhill Christmas Tree Farm to get a live tree. It was about 40 minutes from our house and we really liked the farm and the setting.
This year I really wanted to pick up our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. It didn't go exactly as planned since there was a death in the extended family and we felt that it was important to spend more time with Daniel's family.
This lead to a Sunday afternoon drive to the Kittle Christmas Tree Farm in Ringold, Georgia. We are trying to embrace this new area we call home by trying new places and this was the closest tree farm we could find.
The best thing about this farm is that you get to cut your own tree and that all trees cost $40, regardless of height. When we were buying 12-ft trees for our last house, it would have been ideal just for the price.
However, as a whole experience, we prefer the Thornhill Farm in Alabama. We might actually consider making the drive to Pisgah, AL next year... or just finding a better local place.
I am just thankful we are making the effort to do some of our traditions again.
Due to our lower ceilings in our new home, this year's tree had to be much smaller than our Griswold-size trees of the past, but we still managed to get a tree that was really too big for our den! Daniel had to cut an additional 6 inches off the bottom so that it would fit.
Daniel has had a busy week at work, so while our tree is set up, it still isn't decorated. Hopefully this weekend we will take care of decorating our trees and crossing some of our other traditions off my list for 2014.
Previous Christmas Tree Farm Experiences:
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