The Riley Report: Christmas Tree Cutting

The first weekend of December every year, the Riley Clan heads North to Kaibab National Park (the Grand Canyon) to cut down a Christmas Tree. This has been a long-standing tradition in the family and is a great weekend - full of family, friends and memories.

To start the weekend off, we headed to Flagstaff on Friday night to stay at Little America. About 1/2 of the Christmas Tree Cutting families have adopted this Friday night stay into the annual tradition. We party in the Hensler's hotel room, order pizza and drink wine and beer all night. And, staying in Flagstaff on Friday night means that we get to sleep in a little on Saturday morning before the rest of the crew arrive to begin our caravan into the forest.

(Megan & Greg taking booze to the Henslers party room!)

This was Nolan's first stay in a hotel room, so we had to of course take some cute pictures. Because I'm still on a restricted diet (and therefore can't eat pizza), Nolan and I ordered room service:) I had to have a serious talk with him to enforce that this was a special occasion and that we couldn't always get room service when we traveled!

Saturday morning, we wake up early and meet all the other Christmas Tree Cutting families (10 total) for breakfast at Little America. Then we do a little Christmas shopping in their gift shop before continuing our trek North to Lot 3 where we cut down the trees. This year, John Hensler made an unusual purchase in the gift shop...a stuffed reindeer. Little "Rudy" provided much entertainment through the rest of the weekend, riding on the hood of the truck and visiting our campfire for some photos!

(Nolan's first time ever in a high-chair (Little America Breakfast) He loved it!)

(Checking out the Holiday decorations with Grandma!)

We arrived at Lot 3 around 11am and each family parked and dispersed in search of the "best" tree. To each family this means something different. Some prefer the small and manageable tree (that's what we opted for this year), while others try to wrangle in a 12+ ft. tree. Some cut down the first tree they see and others search for hours (Erin!). All in all, there's usually a lot of laughter and within a couple of hours, everyone has regrouped by the cars to begin the bonfire, wassail drinking and lunch festivities.

(Our little tree - not more than 6 feet tall)

(Brian's a little tired from wrapping it up!)

(Everyone getting ready for lunch back at camp. Rudy is set-up for the party!)

We got really lucky this year, as the weather was gorgeous and in the mid-50's for the entire day. Most of us didn't even wear jackets, but Nolan was in a full snow suit...partially because he was recovering from his first cold and partially because it was the cutest snow-suit ever (thanks Tia E!)

(Doesn't he just look like a cute cuddly little bear:)

(Photos while Brian was busy cutting down the tree!)(Nolan with his UG - UG is ALWAYS the one who can make Nolan smile!)

By 3pm we were all a little exhausted and decide to pack up camp and head to the North Rim to get settled in our cabins. As you can see, Rudy led the way for our group...tied to the hood of Hensler's truck!

Shortly after settling in, we all walked up to El Tovar for a round of drinks (courtesy of Hank) and then back to the Woods' hotel room for chili and football games. Much to the disappointment of most of the men, the U of A beat ASU this year and there were definitely some sad faces in the crowd.