O' Tannenbaum

It was time to break in our new AT boots so Zach and I woke up at 5am on Saturday morning and skinned up the big bad Bald one (otherwise known as our local ski mountain, Baldy). I believe it's around 3,200ft to the top and I always anticipate the first skin of the season with dread and excitement. Dread because I know it's going to be painful to get my lungs and body back into ski touring shape. Excitement because it is always so beautiful and serene to be outside in the quiet moonlight on skis. I'm happy to report we made it with little pain and enjoyed the tour up, well before the first skiers hit the mountain. It was a frigid 2 degrees and windchill of -15 on top of the mountain so we quickly put on our warmer coats, de-skinned our skis, and headed down the mountain on the perfectly groomed corduroy. Our new boots stood the test and my legs are the only thing that need to be broken in now. Warm hot chocolate by the fire in the lodge helped to refuel us for the next part of our day...

Our Christmas tree hunt! Granted we were a warn in from our hike up Baldy but we had gotten the permit (yes of course) and Lucy was ready to go. Why does it always seem that the best Christmas tree's are at the top of a mountain and not near the road where the car is? Maybe it's because they always look so great from far away. By the time we had found the "perfect" tree we had probably hiked up another Baldy and then some, so anything looked good at that point. We had fun sliding down the somewhat snowy hill with our new Christmas tree and quickly stuffed it into the back of the truck.
The perfect tree
At home we quickly realized that our tree was too big for our living room. So we cut a few branches off the bottom...then some more....then some more...until we had what appeared to be the remaining 8ft top of our once beautiful tree. Zach and I were so upset we couldn't even look at it without laughing how ridiculous it looked in the house. Determined not to waste this tree's life I proceeded to decorate the remaining six branches with all the ornaments that would fit. I think Charlie Brown would be proud :)

Next year, needless to say, we are looking for a small tree no bigger then we stand.