Christmas Tree Cutting 2009

Every year we have a tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree. This event has become a ritual in my family and no matter how many years go by I still find myself enjoying it more and more. Maybe because the older I get the more I realize life is short in passing and these times with my family all around me are always the best times there are in life!

It doesn't matter if it's packing your tree out on snowy roads or sporting your cutest pink hat. This tradition just can't be beat.

And speaking of hat's, who wouldn't want to wear something as cute at this pink bonnet!
Baylee --- you're hat is almost as cute as you are!
Hat's are definitely in when it comes to tree cutting, and it seems Seth has stolen Gavin's!
I love your hat Gavin, it even looks good on Seth!!! Nice model job Seth. The hat looks like an Eddie Bauer original! Maybe I should have bought two because Seth, I know you secretively want one!

When we leave the cabin to begin the day of cutting down our handsome piny furs, it's no small feat getting everyone's trucks, trailers and cars loaded up with all of our gear and lined up at the trail head ready to go.

While we are waiting for everyone to arrive, it's usually about this time some one starts flinging snow and it never ends. Attempts to catch the unobservant unaware thereby slamming them with a snowball usually continutes on throughout the entire excursion and it isn't until we're headed home that the snow throwing ceases!

Seth, did you forget to duck?

And how fun would cutting trees be without skidding around on the four wheelers. Craig and Kate are having a good time taking their turn. I love Kate and her toothless grin. I also love listening to her sing "All I want for Christmas is 'all' of my front teeth!"

Right now I have a million things to do and posting on my blog is not really what I should be doing but for some reason it's therapeutic for me. I find more and more Christmas is about stress and tonight I came home from a function a little stressed, so the first place I came to was my study. Glade calls it my cave, but no matter the title, I came in and shut the door.

After turning on my little space heater, I fired up my Christmas music, and started editing pictures for this post. I love pictures! I love everything about them. I love taking them, I love looking at them, I love the people in them, and I find there is something spiritual and soulful in sitting here in my study late at night listening to music and working with each individual photo.

I love my family, and I can't sit here working on these photo's with out realizing what is ultimately important in this life. The older I get the more I realize that life is about love. It feels good to be loved by a family!

What would my life be like without the very people you see here smiling in these pictures?
It would be a sad life. I think that's why I love taking pictures.
Every time I capture a picture, I have frozen a moment in time. I have frozen feelings, perceptions, and emotions associated with that picture that tell a story, a story that speaks to my heart. The mind's eye records everything we experience and when I capture a picture, I can go back and look at that picture and experience that moment all over again!

In this next picture I'm not sure I want to experience the moment all over again. While we were cutting our trees down Emilyn accidentally came upon a tragic loss of life. Deserey couldn't get over the sad sight and quickly came to fetch me with my camera.
Do you see him, the poor little dead thing stuck in the branch? Some unfortunate lonely little mouse was traveling upward in this tall pine tree to who knows where or why and somehow froze to death on the climb. Every time I look at this picture I try to unlock the clues as to how he died.

That's what made me think of my slogan I put on my Christmas card this year "Be alive while you ARE alive! Life is a fragile thing and sometimes we focus too much on that which is of little importance.

Relationships, people, the human soul, Christ's pure example of how to love one another, this is where we need to place our energies! Ali has a bond with her grandpa that is unrestrained. Her love flows easy like and freely, it is unobstructed in every way. As a result she is easy to love back. As I watch her win the heart of her grandfather I see that when any one of us chooses to love in this fashion it produces the same result, a desire to return that love.

So my question is . . . Are you loving regardless, or are you waiting to be loved? Do you love freely, or is your love based on conditions where by you feel loved, so you return love? Do you forgo yourself in all things maintaining a loving heart, or does your love swing on the hinge of conditions, opening and closing according to your limited judgments.

I am thankful today that my family loves me unconditionally! Kids are the greatest example of maintaining a loving heart.

And the people in my life are a great example of that constant open heart! They know me, and they love me anyway!


It doesn't matter if it's on a mountain cutting down a tree,

playing and having fun together,

enjoying each others camaraderie

Their love is steady, dependable, reliable, and rich in abundance.
And it is times like these that are irreplaceable.

How thankful I am for Christ and for His birth. For the chance to build a tradition around celebrating his life. It's a fun tradition and after it's all over everyone is a little sad to go home.

As you can see even Eden didn't want the day to end.

2009 Christmas tree cutting once again was a huge success.
Happy Christmas Crowther Family!