The Elliott Family: getting a Christmas tree

I must admit, we haven't put up a Christmas tree in our own house since 2004. That is when Josh and I were living in Tampa and was also the last year that we haven't had to travel for the Holidays. When we moved to Birmingham in 2005, we just didn't see the point of putting up a tree when we were going to be gone for Christmas. So finally this year, even though we traveled to FL again, I felt Luke was old enough to enjoy the process of picking out and decorating a tree and I was in the Christmas decorating spirit so the Saturday after Thanksgiving my parents watched Brad so Josh, Luke, and me could go pick out a tree.

We went to a church that is a couple of miles from us that had a large selection of trees. It turned out to be quite an adventure. As soon as we got out of the car and were getting ready to walk down the hill to the tree farm, a lady was trying to get into her car next to us, all of a sudden her car began rolling down the hill, directly toward the big tent that was set up housing the wreaths as well as where you went to pay for your tree. It all happened in slow motion it seems, both Josh and me were holding Luke's hand and kind of staring in disbelief. The lady had a little dog on a leash and was fumbling with her keys trying to get into the car to stop it but she couldn't. A couple of the guys working the tree farm rushed over but it was too late, her Range Rover was gone. It crashed into the tent, thankfully no one was in that section of the tent at that time so no one was hurt. It is a mystery what happened because the tree farm worker who got into her car to drive it out told us that her car was in park when he got in to move it. So we are very diligent now about using our parking break! We were a little afraid that this might scare Luke, as many things do these days, but he only mentioned it once later that day and hasn't said anything about it again.

Anyway, after all the excitement, we did pick out a tree.

Mommy and Luke