I’m up in Muskoka for the holidays, surrounded by dogs, food, love, and – for the moment, at least – snow.

Every year my family goes all out for our Christmas tree. Living in the woods affords us a great opportunity to go out and get what my mother calls “a big honker” of a tree – usually in the 20-28-feet range. I’ve posted about it on social media a few times, and friends always react with disbelief and delight when they see the full process, so this year I decided to document the whole process. I used snapchat for several reasons:

• it allows me to share as much as I want via my story without worrying about spamming people’s feeds with separate posts,
• it’s live,
• if I lose service in the forest (a distinct possibility), my posts will upload automatically as soon as I’m back in range,
• and I can do it on the fly with just my phone, leaving me free to put it away or jump in to help at any moment

My sister used her Go-Pro to take some footage for a project as well, but here’s a rough look into A Very Hutchinson Christmas (or, How Our Dogs Learned To Stop Worrying And Love the Sticks).

I promise my dad’s accent at 1:20 isn’t faked in the slightest, and the lumberjack coat is worn with great earnesty.

Merry Christmas!