The Great Tree Hunt

As part of our "over the river and through the woods" trek last week, we stopped just north of Cincinnati in search of a Christmas tree. I know that getting a tree two days after Thanksgiving is a bit absurd, my brother actually thinks it's sacrilege to put a tree prior to his December 2nd birthday, but we had good reason.


Aunt Nikki LOVES finding the perfect tree, and cutting one down is a tradition that she is bound and determined to keep alive in the Neyer family. Since Nik had to head back to school on Sunday, we decided to keep her happy (and the tree tradition alive) and go hunting for our Christmas trees.

I say hunting because this outing was truly an adventure. The three of us pulled off I-71 to meet Grandma Patty and Aunt Nikki at a diner - from there we caravaned off to a tree farm that advertised cut your own trees for $30. Lord knows we love a bargain, so we were determined to find that farm. After 25 or so minutes of driving back roads Andy began to think maybe his mom was a bit lost. We pulled over and he and Nikki swapped places - I think he was questioning his sister's map skills and thought he could get us where we need to be.

We passed The Christmas Ranch, not what we were looking for, Big Tree Plantation, not what we were looking for, and a ton of farmland, not what we were looking for. After another 30 minutes of aimless wandering and u-turns we arrived at the coveted tree farm. (Turns out the directions that were in hand were from the north, not the south, making every turn we took WRONG.)

The farm was lovely it had a horse named Ginger, a couple of goats, a sleigh and some big snowman statues. What it didn't have was any good Christmas trees. Most of the trees were barely as tall as me, and rather scrawny. That didn't bother Addie at all, as she loved the "baby" trees.

After wandering the rows and looking at the sad little trees, we decided this was not the place for us and we headed to Big Tree Plantation (yep, the one we passed up at least twice earlier in our adventure). It sure isn't $30 for any tree on the lot, but it is a great Christmas tree farm.

There was hot cocoa, reindeer, and a live nativity scene. There was Santa, deep fried Snickers, and a homemade wreathes. There were trees taller than me.

We took a horse drawn wagon out to the trees, where we were given a saw and two large sleds to drag our trees back to the barn with. And thus the hunt began.

We walked up and down row after row of gorgeous trees. They were tall and full and smelled fabulous. Addie played tag and hide and seek with Nikki. Patty and I fretted over "just the right tree". Andy dutifully followed behind us with the saw.

Two dang near perfect trees were finally selected, cut down, bundled and paid for. While Andy and Patty took care of the paying and loading up the cars part, Aunt Nikki and I took care of the drinking rich hot chocolate and meeting Santa part. Both of which Addie loved.




Within a minute or two of getting back in the car to head home, our little elf passed out. It was a big day of traveling and finding a tree. She woke up when we pulled in to Grandma's driveway - eager to decorate that tree. Grandma's tree is up and twinkly and decorated. Tomorrow we tackle our tree...