Every year since before I was born, during the Christmas season my family has a wonderful tradition for picking out our tree. We never went to the traditional tree farms to pick out the perfect one, or gone to one of the local stores that carries the pre-cut trees. Growing up in a lumberjack family, you go out in the woods and cut one yourself. My parent's house is on 40 acres, with the back yard being nothing but swamp and woods. And it's here where we trek year after year in search of our tree.

This year is a little different. Usually there's a ton of snow already we have to walk thru and it does make it harder. It was in the 40's today and not a trace of snow, so we walked out into the woods to find our perfect tree. And since my phone was dead, an easier walk not having to worry about the snow, and in celebration of being caught up on sessions (save for the ones I shot this weekend), I brought the big camera along to document it!

Side note: we only picked out the tree today. Tomorrow we chop it!

It's nothing but swampy woods back here!

Aaaand...we found our tree!! In the picture below on the left, it's the tree on the right-ish side. My dad chops the tree down, we take the top, and the trunk is big enough he's cutting the bottom up to use either as firewood, or in his sawmill.