Home Again

John and I had a wonderful time visiting with Susie's family over the Thanksgiving holiday and especially enjoyed the warm weather.  A couple of other families were invited to join us for dinner on Thursday and brought several delicious dishes and deserts to share.  There was plenty of food and everyone was pretty much stuffed the remainder of the day.  We taught the kids how to play "31" and spent the evening playing cards and watching the Muppets "A Christmas Carol" movie.  Our original plan for Friday was to spend the day in San Francisco, but my back was acting up and I couldn't tolerate the two and a half hour car ride, so we all just hung out around the house.

Susie's family has the yearly tradition of cutting down their Christmas tree this holiday weekend, so on Saturday we all loaded into their van and headed off to the foothills of the Sierras.  We met up with Zach and Becky along the way and, after about an hour's drive, arrived at one of the many tree farms/apple orchards in the area.  Picking out the perfect tree is not a fast process as there are hundreds of trees to look over.  After a couple of hours of walking up and down the hills, comparing many trees, and then discussing the pros and cons of each one, the perfect one for this Christmas was finally selected.  Once you have selected your tree, you yell "Cutter", and a fellow with a saw tries to find you and when he does, helps you cut down the tree and takes it down the hill to be wrapped in netting.  You then pay for the tree and get it loaded into the back of your pickup or tied to the top of your car.  It was late in the afternoon when we finished with the tree, so we stopped at "In and Out Burger" for supper.  This is a must experience when visiting CA.

 Christmas Tree Farm

Jesse (back to camera) Maggie, Zach,

and Becky looking over some trees

 

It's getting late, so I'll finish our adventure on tomorrow's blog.