one year later

I still can't believe it, but it's already a year ago that Colin and I drove out to Paine's to cut down our Christmas tree after a day of snowboarding at Stowe. A year ago that Colin got down on his knee and proposed to me, out in the woods in the middle of nowhere. It's been a great year. A fast one and a great one.

We drove back to Paine's this weekend. There wasn't as much snow as last year (none!) and the mountain hadn't opened yet. But at least it was chilly and my toes got cold. We walked all over in search of the second perfect tree. They have acres and acres of trees on that the farm. But finally after at least an hour of walking to and fro, we found a big fat tree, right in the same exact spot as last year's tree.

That spot is magical, I swear. As soon as we looked at each other and said, "this is it," snow flakes started falling.

We got to work. This tree must be fatter than last year's tree. The trunk is ginormous and it measured over 10 feet tall! This year, I wasn't so preoccupied with my ring finger, so I lent a hand. A little hand, anyhow. It still took us a half hour to cut it down.

The man on the tractor came and picked us up. Heavy tree!

The men back at the tree stand wrapped her up in twine and tied her to the car. Big bendy tree! We got lots of funny looks from people passing us on the interstate. It snowed almost the whole way home.

She was curvier than we thought. It was a challenge to get her in the stand without swaying to and fro, but finally we did. And Colin made a new star for the tippy top. And here's the tree.