Christmas Tree Hunting...

Well here we are, new to the blogging world. Now all my random thoughts will appear before your very eyes!

For those that don't know me, I am Nancy's brothers girlfriend.... I could add a few more titles, but that should do for now, a flow chart will follow.... Oh, and my name is Kelly.

So to catch up those of you reading this that don't know where on the planet we hail from, it's ... Montana. Yes, The Big Sky Country... and getting bigger with all the trees making way for construction. We are in the NW corner, 20 miles from Glacier National Park.

Doug is doing well, working lots on a big house as the foreman, (lots of duties... hence the thinking part). It hasn't snowed much (a couple inches so far until today...) and the weather has been very warm for now, then reeeeeeeeealllllllllllllllllyyyyyyy cold. Blood is still thin from summer! Doug will be digging himself into his job site tomorrow, as it's been dumping snow all day! We have another term for the large amount falling out of the sky, but I will save it for a later time when you know me better.... I'm sure the hot tub will be a welcome sight tomorrow night!

I have been working on my photography business now that I have a few moments to sit still and working on the house. Mainly painting, floors.... It's very therapeutic to paint your floors, almost as good as mowing tall grass down. I painted the gym area mango. It's very inviting, hopefully it works to entice me toward the equipment.


So last night, we threw a big bash with all our friends and my family. The house was packed, everyone brought some wonderful delicacy from their kitchens and we played until the wee hours of the night/morning. We had a blast!

I woke this morning with the warm fuzzies about the friends we have and my children (both attended with their girlfriend/boyfriend), as well as my mom. OK, I was a bit fuzzy from the wine I had last night, but I had a quest, and that quest was to get a Christmas tree today.

To truly appreciate the quest, one must revisit the last 23 years of Christmas Tree Hunting. Collectively, a ever growing group of us (random friends), meet in the morning, drives miles into the woods on some icy forest service road, find a patch of trees, (they are all different you know...) stop the car, and get out and walk in knee deep snow with our dogs and find that proverbial "perfect" Christmas tree. The last part is the "hunting" part.

Yesterday, Doug, mom, and a couple other folks and I attempted this quest. We however couldn't find "the" tree, therefore our, (Doug and I), hunt was deemed unsuccessful. Hence today's quest.

Onward, to my daughters house, 20 miles from ours, in one of the most beautiful parts of our valley, trees, tress, and more trees. They are everywhere! I want one; more specifically a blue spruce, the angry tree, leaves your hands bloodied by the time you've put your lights on it. You just want to throw the ornaments in it's direction, so it's needles can do you no more harm.

We arrive, it's snowing lightly. I get out of the car, let the dogs out, and go into the house for some coffee. I am inside for about 5 minutes. When I leave, I don't see the dogs anywhere. Fellan is the big black lab/wolf cross who will be 13 in March. Peanut is the chocolate and she is 2. Gone, totally, gone, not a track to be found. We looked for 3 hours.... I am FREAKING out now. Old dog, post holed in the snow, is all I can think of and Peanut or "Butter dog" isn't much for finding her way back, she assumes we will pick her up in the car somewhere, I think... Lost, in the woods. I think. Well they eventually made their way back the the house, jogging from what I am told. As Doug and I were combing the roads in the car when Heather's boyfriend called to tell us that the delinquents had returned. First off, their grounded. Although they did get one cookie out of me this evening, second, their both a bit stiff from their adventures, and my personal favorite, they have the best gas any two dogs could collectively make all the way home in the car. Brutal! Did I tell you their grounded. The lesson here is when a dog smells some "good stuff", it doesn't matter how old they are, how far they have to go to get it, or how long they are out in the cold snowy forest, they are puppies again. Fellan probably plugged his ears while chewing on the bones of something "wonderful", while I lost my voice yelling for him. Peanut was probably instructed to stand guard and not run back to the house.

Well to sum it up, in our efforts to find the dogs, we did find a lovely tree, said our prayers, and cut 'er down, strapped it to the car like any proud hunter would, and will enjoy the spoils of the hunt tomorrow, when the lights go on....

So today is almost over for me, getting tired now, tomorrow is a new day, and I hope to enjoy it every bit as I did all the others.

On a serious note, I have enjoyed reading the blog, honored to be asked to join it. I read the letter Nancy posted about the feelings of someone with a disease. I too "got it", as I am a cancer survivor. Well written, hard to explain and harder to contemplate if you haven't been there. It changed my life, and I feel it made me a better person for it. You don't take all the little stuff as seriously, as it doesn't deserve the energy. Enjoy yourself, your family and your friends every moment you breathe, you never know when that bus is lurking around the corner.

Thank you Nancy for inviting us to blog with you. After this blog gets posted, I will wait by the phone in case you need to call and cancel my subscription to the blog, leave a message if I don't answer, I'll be out shovelling snow... I promise I won't cry.

PS. Do they have help groups for long winded writers?...