O Christmas Tree!

I love our Christmas tree.  For the last 3 or 4 Christmas's we have gone to the same U-cut tree farm and cut down our own tree.  I love it.  It isn't really far, but it is far enough away I feel like it's "trip."  Which may sound like a negative thing to some people, but I think that's part of the fun.  Plus its only $15 a tree, any tree, any size.  Yea for cheap trees!

Here is Kincaid and Miles waiting out the drive.

Henry had other ideas about how to use that time.

Miles and I browsing the grounds for the perfect tree.

Here is our family standing in front of our chosen tree before we chopped it down.  (And yes, the top does keep going above the top of the picture.  More on that later...)

Sam took the term "chop" literally.  He got out his Chuck Norris skills and went to town.  The saw in the picture is really just for show.

After Sam chopped down our tree we hung out with some friends and family that came with us while they picked out their trees and cut them down.  (Notice the word "cut" - no Chuck Norris skills involved.)  While we were waiting a rainbow came out, so I took a picture.

So we (by we I mean I) discovered that trees look a lot smaller outdoors next to 20 or so foot tall trees than they do in a house.  After Sam had cut about 2 feet off the top and brought it inside, it was clear it was not going to fit in the corner we had chosen.  I don't know if you can see or not, but the tree is leaning against the ceiling, and still not straight up.  Sam wasn't amused.  But I am sure you could see that.  (I love how Henry has his head cranked way back to see the tree).

We rearranged some furniture and did some more tree trimming (not decorating, trimming), and finally got it a size and shape that would work.  It's a good thing we have vaulted ceilings.  Sam says its ridiculous (because of its size. Its about 12 feet tall), but I love it.  It is probably the largest tree we will ever have, well it is the largest tree we will ever have if Sam has a say in it, and I am loving it.  

In  lieu of ornaments, besides ones the boys make or we are given, we make gingerbread cookies every year and hang them on our tree.  It is a long and messy project, but I enjoy doing it, and I love the way it looks and how our house smells like gingerbread and pine all during December.  

So for FHE (and a few more evenings), we made, decorated, and hung our ornaments.  Miles overheard me mentioning to Kincaid and Henry that any ornament that got broken they could eat, so he decided to help a few out.

Below:  Mission accomplished.  Notice the look on my face and the hand gesture toward Miles.  I had to remind myself (well, actually Sam had to remind me) that there are more important things than perfect gingerbread ornaments.

We had to borrow a mega-huge ladder just to decorate and put the star on the top of our tree (Thanks Wes and Amber).  But luckily the ladder reached high enough to allow us to reach the top, and with the star on the tree, there was a just enough room left above it to not touch the ceiling.

I love our tree!  

Miles was less than helpful during the first night of ornaments, so this is what he did the next night.  That's pizza sauce on his forehead and in his hair and a donut hole in his mouth.  He was having a great time.

This is our finished project.  We had to make some modifications from our usual methods of Christmas tree doings, but it was all worth it.  I love this tree (did I already say that?).  In fact I think this is/will be my favorite Christmas tree ever.  I would even write a song about it, except that someone already has. O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches...

Thanksgiving Day Pictures

I didn't get nearly as many Thanksgiving day pictures as I wanted, but here are a few that represent what we did for Thanksgiving.

Breakfast, yum! Too bad that's the only part of breakfast I got a picture of.

Sam seems to think Thanksgiving day means yard work.  It was not what I had in mind for a family holiday together, but we had just cut down a tree a in the front yard (hence the stump) and it was a mess, so I wasn't complaining.

I was a baking maniac on Wednesday. I made 2 pumpkin pies, an old fashioned crumb-topped apple pie and a chocolate turtle cheesecake.  The only one I got a picture of was the cheesecake, but the picture doesn't do it justice.  The cheesecake, when prepared correctly, is heaven on earth.  I had some issues (I didn't grease the pan), so it was lacking in the aesthetically pleasing department, but really, does that matter all that much?

The only person who was still in eating position when I stopped eating long enough to remember to get pictures was Miles. So here is Miles doing what we do best on Thanksgiving.

Here are a couple of pictures of Sam's family after dinner.  I totally forgot to get out my camera at my family's house (that was for dessert, I had several other things on my mind at the time:  pumpkin pie with whipped cream and chocolate turtle cheesecake for starters).

Thanksgiving was tasty and wonderful. And because my and Sam's sisters were in town we spent a lot of time with our family's over the weekend so for the first time in 7 years I got to actually eat leftovers after Thanksgiving.  I forgot how awesome that is.