The Red Caboose

One of our family's traditions is to pick our tree out at the Red Caboose every year the day after Thanksgiving. They have tons of trees that you can cut down - but we typically go straight towards the pre-cut frasier furs shipped in directly from North Carolina. This year they lost 1,000 trees to a fungus - yikes! I'm sure that accounted for the increase in prices. We'll continue to go - it's just more festive than going to the local garden center.

There's nothing better than picking out a tree in 65 degree weather! Next year we might need to take two vehicles to the farm... James' truck can only seat 3 kiddos!

For a second we thought it might be fun to try and lose the kids in the maze of trees. Maybe we could have done that 20 years ago, but times have changed.

Emily found this special tree that she liked... any tree you can cut with scissors is probably not a good choice.

The Red Caboose has a small barn full of animals - rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys, llamas, parrots, doves, random tropical birds, peacocks...

"Mommy, this one feels like Saffron. But she's more stinky." These days, I'd call it a tie.

"You take the one in the blue shirt, I'll get the little ones..."


Strike a pose.

"That's it, I'm throwing you in."

Usually Santa is there every year, but he must still have a few things to wrap up at the North Pole. I think we will probably see him a few times this season. For some reason, he likes to visit the gym every year (maybe to partake in some needed exercising) and we plan on going to the North Pole via the Polar Express train ride in December. Fun times ahead!