I Give You the McDesi Family Tree

"Dad, this tree won't fit in our back yard."
"It's not going in the yard, Russ. It's going in the living room."
 - Christmas Vacation

You can't go cut down a Christmas tree without thinking of Clark Griswold.  As the McDesi's trekked out to Gaver's Farm, we looked for a smaller tree, and hopefully one without a squirrel.

We started out the day doing a little tree cutting "tail-gating" courtesy of my sis-in-law Cindy featuring coffee, doughnuts, and cookies.  As we took part in the festivities, we got the cousins together for their first of many photos on the day.

After our bellies were full of sweets and veins full of caffeine, we all took off to the trail to find a Christmas tree.  After finding ones that were too tall, too short, had a bare patch, had a brown patch, we found the McDesi family tree.  I settled down and wielded my saw as Mary and Catie watched.

As I got to work, it turned out the saw I brought was not really made for cutting down a tree.  Each minute I laid there sawing making little progress, I could feel my man-card laughing at me. Finally, Chip came by to let me borrow his saw.  With the right tool, the tree came down and onto the wagon as my manhood was restored.

As we gathered back together with our trees, the girls were gathered for some more photos.

And we decided to pose for some pictures as well.

After the photos were all taken, we trekked back to the farmhouse to get our tree wrapped up and paid for.  The girls were again gathered for their last set of group photos on the day.

Now with the McDesi family tree in hand, we begin to decorate.  That is the next post.