My family always celebrated Christmas with an artificial tree. Now, you have to admit, fake trees are mighty convenient to use - although, there were a couple of years when my dad would simply shove the tree in another part of the house until the next Christmas - I kid you not!!!.
Still, I'm intrigued by the culture of using live trees at Christmas and Marika, of course, loves field trips, so we were both psyched to visit a local Christmas tree farm last week.
We got the "royal tour", which included the Honey House, a hay ride, a maze run (did no one else see The Shining?), and the viewing of an assortment of animals. I actually included this picture of a cow, because she was so beautiful. She's an Angus, which I assume is the beef cow... and my, she looks fabulous compared to the dairy cows I used to rub elbows with (when I was helping out a veterinary entomologist) or even the cows that occasionally chased my friend and I when we were collecting insects on their turf. Ah, but I digress...
The kids may have enjoyed the train more than anything else. They would have stayed there for hours, if we had let them. What IS it about trains and little kids???
At the very end, our tour guide chopped down a tree for the kids to bring back to their classroom. This hurt to watch because in Japanese folktales, all trees are believed to have spirits living within them. *sigh*
And this is my favorite picture... isn't she cute? 
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