Last year, I wrote a post about my family's annual Christmas tree hunt. <-- click on that sentence to re-read it.

Since I've gotten that out of the way, I won't bore you with the history. Instead, I'll just post some pictures of the hunt this year and tell you that this was one of the best years ever. We thought Iliya would probably have fun, but I believe we underestimated the fun he would have. It was so. cold. because we were on top of a mountain and the wind was fairly strong. Of course, being from the Russian Far East, I think Iliya is pretty much genetically programmed to deal with that sort of weather (and worse, of course!). For sure, he was in his element (outside) and loving life.

His mittens wouldn't stay on (or better yet, he wouldn't leave them on - because it was too difficult to pick up and carry rocks wearing said mittens) but he didn't care. He was perfectly content to run around with whoever could keep up with him.


It was definitely the best Christmas Tree Hunt ever. No doubt about that.