Each December for perhaps 8 or ten years we’ve been going to the St Croix Valley Tree Farm to get our Christmas tree. It’s a pretty drive and it makes getting the tree an event. We recommend it.

So while we were cutting down our tree, there was another family with a Mom, a Dad and two late teen age kids. The two kids seemed to be having fun and they did the cutting and we took a picture of their family for them and they took a picture of ours. There was no sign of these teens being grumpy or bored.

Later, I asked the Mom if she had any tips in raising kids who would want to do something like going to get a tree even when they’re older and she immediately said, “Do it every year.”

She said that they had considered getting a tree in a lot and the kids insisted that they do what they had done for so many years. That’s what I want.

But here’s the potentially more important point: Do you think that if this works for getting Christmas trees, it might also work for more eternally crucial habits?

Perhaps.

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