Yule Tree 2006

There are four trees in the back of our pickup. I didn’t know it would hold that many. Ian and I, along with my oldest son’s family, have established the tradition of going up to Forest Service land above Frenchman’s Lake, California and cutting our Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving. The group with us changes from year to year, but we always seem to have three vehicles, snow on the ground, mud on the road, and breakfast in Chilcoot afterwards.

This year Ian’s oldest daughter and her family joined us from Redding. We turned the camera over to our 15-year-old step-granddaughter this year with surprising and pleasing results.




Cousins who don't get to see each other very often had the time of their lives and made lasting memories, without MasterCard, thank you very much.



These are the bear tracks by our wheel tracks. I’ve never seen bear tracks and they’re just as big as I’ve heard they are. I’m glad we only saw tracks!






Ian and I were happy with the tree that we had selected until we felled it and all the branchs on the one side snapped off. We simply couldn’t use it. That's never happened before - a diseased tree perhaps? Always the first to have a tree in the past, the pressure was on to find another tree, cut and tag it, get it on the truck and go eat. Long story short, we put a lot of energy into bringing home the most Charlie Brown tree we’ve ever had. But it’s the memories that count, of cutting the tree, the banter on the walkie-talkies en route to tree cutting, the shared meal, and all the meaning behind each ornament. It’s an ugly tree, but in a good way - no side shots please.