Oh Cristmas Tree

One of my favorite parts about Christmas is getting the tree. We have made it a tradition in our family to go out and cut one down every year! This year was no exception and I was especially excited because of the location we were going. It is beautiful!! I got our permit and we were ready to go. It snowed Friday night which made us a little nervous to go out, but Brock reminded me that if we planned our lives around the weather in the winter, we would never do anything. We set out Saturday morning with our packed picnic lunch including a stove to make hot chocolate, our saw, snow clothes and boots and lots of good spirit. The roads were covered in snow, but that didn't stop us. It took us about an hour and a half to get to our destination when on a normal day it might have only taken us 45 minutes to an hour. We were still excited and when we got there we ate our lunch and then packed up to go on a little hike to find the perfect Christmas tree. It didn't take us long to find one, and we really enjoyed being out in the forest. We cut our tree and hauled it back to the car....dragged it rather, tied

it up and decided we had no time for hot chocolate because we had to get back to set up for the ward christmas party that night. On our way back the roads were still snowy, but not too bad. When we were about 20 miles outside of town we started to fishtail and Brock lost control of the car. We slid fast down a hill and into a ditch passing sagebrush and rocks along the way. A tree finally stopped us! Kayden was asleep and woke up crying and probably scared for his life. We were in shock that this could possibly happen to us. We were ok, but the car wasn't. Brock got out and looked at the car, considerably damaged, and we

began to put pieces back together. We were a ways off the road, so I went up the hill to the road to see if I could flag anyone down to help us. One of our tires had blown out, so Brock began to change it and put our spare on. Kayden just played in the car with the heater and music on. There was no one on the road, so I went back to help Brock. Someone finally stopped and helped us. Brock got the tire changed and we decided the best way out was up the hill. The men cleared a path for Brock and he backed up as far as he could go and went up the hill. We decided he only had one shot at getting the car up or else he would have slid back down and possibly into another tree. I sat with Kayden in the truck of our new found

rescuers and prayed my little heart out. Brock was able to get the car far enough up the hill for someone to pull him out the rest of the way. We were then followed back to town to make sure we were alright. Instead of sitting at home moping on saturday night we went to our ward christmas party and had a great time. We have realized how blessed we are and how our Heavenly Father was looking over us this day. Even though this was scary, it could have been a lot worse!!! I spent the day yesterday getting estimates on our car, and talking to our insurance company. The cost of the damage to the car is about what the car is worth, so we are not sure what we are going to do now. One thing for sure is that we have to stay here for Christmas. This was the most expensive Christmas tree we have ever gotten!!