Finally finally, on the evening of Thanksgiving, even as we were pulling out of Cache Valley and our kids declared themselves hungry, thus necessitating a stop at the local Maverick for hotdogs and popcorn, I felt like Christmas started. I can't remember if it was that night or the next morning that I finally let the Christmas Carols play freely, but it was within 24 hours of my last bite of Tonja's turkey. The day after Thanksgiving we pulled out our boxes of decorations and got them all arranged. We have quite the collection of Santas at this point and I love them as much as ever.

As is true every year, our Christmas decorations were up in haste but we had to wait a bit for our  Christmas tree since it wouldn't be until the following weekend that we could journey to Bear Lake country to get our tree with Mary and co.  We had an exciting adventure this year, and, for the first time ever, we have a guest post from Troy to recount the events of the weekend.

Take it away, Troy:

Our tree hunting trip this year ended up being one of our all-time favorites, but it did not start out that way. In fact it may have been almost as memorable as 2010 when the Tahoe got stuck and we met the local hero duo of Kim and LeRoy. 

In at least one way, the events of the trip began a couple of weeks before we even left. You see, the Land Cruiser had super dim headlights so I took it to a shop to get new much brighter headlights installed, but the new headlights required some new wiring and these new parts seemed to have exposed some weaknesses in the electrical system of the Land Cruiser which were manifest when you turned the key to start it and nothing happened. This new problem seemed to hit at random times and could be solved by a quick charge to a battery before it was time to go anywhere.  Just before we were to leave on Friday night, I took the Cruiser to the gas station for fuel and it started up just fine. We packed it up and all got in and got ready to leave and…nothing. It wouldn’t start. We said a prayer. It wouldn’t start. Not a great beginning to a trip, but also not that big of a deal. We already had jumper cables packed, so after charging the battery for a few minutes and starting the cruiser up, we decided to pack an extension cord, a battery charger and the wrenches to remove battery cables.

We headed to Layton to pick up keys to the cabin since Mary was in charge of her ward Christmas party and would not be able to come up until later. 

After picking up the keys, we headed to Bear Lake and our favorite cabin. We arrived at the dark cabin and I headed out the shed to get the power to the cabin going. 

The cabin is off grid, so power comes from a combination of solar panels, batteries and a propane generator.  When you arrive you need to turn on several things to get it ready for living for the weekend. I started the cabin up and all seemed fine. That lasted for about 20 minutes when everything went dead. I could not get the generator to start and the batteries (all 20 of them) were dead. It was pitch black out, so the solar panels would be of no use. We had no light, no heat, no water, nothing. The girls started crying and wanted to get back in the car and head home. I got a fire going which helped a bit, but we really thought that we would get up in the morning, pack up, get a tree and then head straight home. Mary and kids arrived about 1:00am or so and after a brief discussion of the situation they headed to bed as well. I “slept” on the couch by the fire and kept it going all night to keep the cabin warm for the night. 

In between stoking the fire and gathering wood all night, I had time to think and an idea came to him about how to fix the generator.  At first light, I headed out to the shed and pulled the covers off of the generator and removed the starter battery from the generator and then replaced it.  This must have rebooted the generator controls, because after that the display came to life and I was able to start the generator. Hallelujah.  With the generator on we now had everything we needed: Lights, heat, water, music. Everything. 

With everyone in a much better mood and with stomachs full of yummy breakfast, we headed out to get the trees.  There were quite a few people up the canyon and we drove farther up the canyon than we ever had, but found a lovely tree right by the road. Perhaps our favorite tree ever. 

As is now our tradition, we headed back to the cabin for food, games, and music and movies. We spent a lovely day with wonderful friends in a fully functional cabin.

The next morning we cleaned the cabin and got ready to head home, but not before our own private sacrament meeting. We have done these a couple of times now and we really enjoy them. Chase and I prepared and passed the sacrament and Romney gave a lovely talk.  It really wasn’t until our sacrament meeting that I realized that if the Land Cruiser had started when it was time to leave home, I would not have brought with us the tools that we ended up needing to fix the generator. We were all touched by the spirit that day as we were taught once again that our Heavenly Father is aware of us and loves us. It was a special meeting that hopefully the kids and adults will not forget.

I imagine that this year’s trip will go down as the one without power for a day and will be remembered more than the others, just as the year that we got stuck and needed rescuing is remembered more than the others. It did have some downs, but overall, I think this was the best trip to date.

Rachel here again...I really don't have much to add to Troy's tale. It really was an exceptional year that meant a great deal to all of us. We loved seeing the kids play together, we loved being in the tight quarters of that sweet little cabin and being together. I once again read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to the family as we drove, and there were many other fun little things, but I think the real important point was the story that Troy shared so well.