Today we joined Bill, Debbie and the kids for the annual Christmas tree farm visit to find a tree for them. Dylan gravitated to the enormous trees, but Bill reminded him that the tree needed to actually fit in their basement – and paying for a huge tree to use just a small portion of it didn’t make a lot of sense. (The comment made me think of Mr Bean’s Christmas, for those familiar with that classic episode.) In keeping with tradition, Bill carried the trusty axe into the field and having selected the coniferous candidate, everyone took swings at it, even the 3-year old Seth. The axe was swung with gusto — particularly by some of us — but after several rounds each all we had succeeded in doing was chew away a bit of the bark. Bill took a closer look at the axe, and running his thumb down the blade made the observation that actually sharpening the axe before next year’s adventure would probably be a good idea. Reinforcements were then called in because it was clear that at our rate of progress the tree would probably grow another couple of inches before we had it down. The Christmas tree farm owner arrived with this chainsaw, and with a quick buzz the tree was on the ground and then tied to the roof of Bill’s minivan in no time.