41 Weeks Until Christmas

Hi everyone – there’s now just 41 weeks until Christmas. It’s going by fast!

I must apologize for not updating the countdown in recent weeks. Elf Harold updated up last on the countdown and I have been down with a flu bug in the time since.

I was ordered to bed by the doctor to get better and Elf Harold told me he would update the countdown while I got better. Well, he didn’t.

And my recovery has taken me longer than I ever thought it would. I lost my voice! For almost two weeks nobody could understand a word I was saying. I didn’t actually feel bad at that time but I sounded just awful.

Well, I’m better now. In fact, I feel great.

I decided after being down with the flu that I needed some activity. So I joined the annual Christmas tree hunt.

The Christmas tree hunt is not about cutting down trees. It’s kind of like bird watching. You go out in the wild and you try to find different kinds of trees that could be used later in the season closer to Christmas.

The doctor told me I could go, even though I was just getting over being sick. It was a lot of time outside and while it is still snowing a lot here at the North Pole it’s not like it has been windy or really super cold. It’s nice snow.

We just bundled up, headed out on sleighs and went looking for Christmas trees. With us was Elf Dani Burgess, of Southern North Pole University, and she is a botanist and an expert on Christmas trees. She brought along charts with big pictures of certain tree types. In all, we had about 17 different kinds of trees we were looking for.

She was guiding a group from the Art Department at SNPU. Their goal was to take photos of the trees we found and they plan to draw and sculpt trees.

Also with us was a team from Santa’s workshop. Elf Kirby, a kind of head elf in the artificial tree department, was leading this team who makes fake trees. They need to learn about the trees so they can make trees to be used in parts of the world where they don’t grow naturally.

So it was a pretty good group of elves out looking at trees and we went out there several days.

We found all 17 trees right here at the North Pole. We took pictures, talked about each tree and what made it special and unique, and we even discussed how to light and decorate each type.

The experience was fascinating and it has me thinking I want to spend more time this year on Christmas trees. I’d like to become an expert.

I don’t know if I have an eye for decorating but I like knowing what each tree type is and how they can be used in different situations.

So I might take a few more of Dani’s classes at SNPU to keeping learning about Christmas trees.

And yes, this whole thing has got me back in the Christmas spirit. I don’t know anyone else thinking about Christmas trees right now but I am and I love it.