Day 151

Happy black Friday everyone. I hope you fared better than anyone working in retail this morning. I did.

In fact, today was a fantastic day. We (my family) has this tradition of cutting down Christmas trees on the day after Thanksgiving. We go with some of my parents college friends and their families. We are now up to quite a few of us, as you will see in a few minutes. This is actually the 25th year that this group has been going out there (there is Pea Ridge Forest, off 94 past Warrenton). My dad and I were trying to figure out how long we have been going, and its been a good chunk of that. I don't remember getting a tree anywhere else (not that that means much, I couldn't tell you what I had for dinner 2 of the last 3 nights), but we cut our own tree quite a bit.

At this point, I should also shout out to my friend Jana, who's family runs a Christmas tree farm in Indiana. I am sure she could tell you way more about Christmas tree farms.

Now, I like to be specific about the awesomosity, so I am choosing the most specialized piece of equipment they have their. Shakee, the Christmas Tree shaker. It shakes off all the dead pine needles. It's pretty awesome.

Shakee

This is a picture of the tree shaker off the companies website. Here is a picture of the actual shaker, being used to shake off dead needles from my folks tree.

Shakee in action

After cutting the trees, drinking hot chocolate and taking a picture with Santa, we go to Imo's at the Warrenton outlet center. Then a little shopping (I got a great deal on some flat front slacks and a thermal shirt all for under $20, aren't you proud Gina?).

All in all it is a fantastic day spent with family doing some really fun stuff. Now, I'm off to attempt to sleep for a few minutes before the madness bound to happen tonight at Llywelyns.

Here is a picture of my family just after killing a tree, then a picture of the whole gang we go with (and Santa Claus, who made a special trip from the North Pole just for us!)