This will be our first Christmas as a couple, a family, and a group.  It’s certainly a mixture of emotions, memories, and history, but mostly a time of joy and happiness that we are surrounded by so much love and friendship within our circle.  We are merging our family traditions with open hearts and are excited to mix things up to create our new forever traditions all together.

One tradition that both of us have honored, as most families in Wyoming do, is the Christmas tree hunt.  In fact, last night she woke me up at 3 am to promise her we would never get an artificial tree.  Apparently she was sleep talking but I assured her it would never be an option.  I grew up in Wisconsin where cutting down a Christmas tree involved driving to a tree farm and choosing a huge, full, shaped, perfection of a conifer.  In Wyoming, we get a $10 tree permit and head for the mountain in search of a tree that hopefully has more than 10 branches and the branches are actually on every side of the tree.  Easier said than done.  Basically there are 2 choices of tree, that is, what’s left from the Bark Beetle infestations:  lodgepole pines or spruces.

This year we headed for the mountains and found a beautiful tree.  My partner was at drill for the weekend, so the hunting group consisted of me, all 5 kids, my ex-husband, my ex-husband-in-law, a cousin, and my ex-husband-in-law’s mother, who could be considered my um, hmmm, uh, I’m not sure what that term would be.  But she’s amazing, loving, kind, and a friend, and I love having her in our family.  I would call our first official Christmas tree hunt as a family a success!  Hopefully next year we will all be together.