Hunting for trees and stories

A little Bohnhoff in a big Bohnhoff jacket. Let me begin by asserting that, without a doubt, the Bohnhoff family is not the Anderson Family that shows up Jingle Night or Tweet Sarts, the two books currently in my series for middle grade readers called Anderson Family Chronicles. That being said, there are some similarities.

Take, for instance, Christmas tree hunting, which the Andersons do in Jingle Night, and which the Bohnhoffs did this weekend. Both families went to the Jemez mountains
to get their tree, and both families had mishaps.

Some of the Bohnhoffs had come from out of State and needed some time to run a few essential errands before we headed out. Not knowing how long the errands would take, I packed a lunch and cocoa for us. We were finally ready to go at noon. Shouldn't we have lunch I asked? "Not until we get there," my husband, who is definitely not the stubborn, slightly OCD, over organized father of the Anderson family said. 
The snowy hillside made a perfect winter wonderland. The Bohnhoffs and their trophy trees. So we drove the one hour journey to the mountains. Did we eat then? No, for fear we'd not find the right tree before the sun set.

No sooner than we got out of the car did we realize that three of us had forgotten to pack jackets. We improvised, pulling apart shells and inner linings to share. 
Unlike the Andersons, we managed to find our trees without tears or puppet drownings. I'm not in the "trophy" picture because although we brought a camera that had a timer and a tripod, we forgot to the put the memory card in the camera, so I took this with my phone. My husband managed to wrap the tree in plastic and tie it to the roof of the car without roping himself out - proving he's better than the Anderson dad. By the time the tree was in place we were all too cold to eat, so we finally at on the drive home.

Truth may be stranger than fiction sometimes, but it's rarely as funny. The Bohnhoff's tree hunting trip is less interesting than the Anderson's one. Is our tree any better? Once it's up and decorated I'll post a picture of it and let you decide. 

Jingle Night is available in ebook and paperback. Want a signed copy? Get one here.