Mommy D, my grandma, is still doing OK! I love to visit her and it gave me the perfect excuse to swing by a greenhouse filled with poinsettias and gift one to her! Merry Christmas!
We began at E&A Candies and bought some chocolates and received free lollipops! This is such a cute store!!!!
There is a little thrift store in town that we browsed and I knew hubby would find some old book and movie! The Candle Barn was our next stop and the kids had no idea that there was a candle factory in our small town! It really is so cool!
We walked through town and entered Kitchen Kittle! This is a village full of many neat shops! The Leather Shop was a favorite and we tried on expensive leather jackets and slipped our feet into warm, fuzzy slippers and left there with a wishlist! The fudge shop had a huge slab of freshly made fudge that needed to be sliced and packaged yet. We walked down to farther and got some hot dogs and kraut for lunch! It was Hadassah's idea to decorate gingerbread cookies and they kids laughed while they plastered icing on the cookies!
And he makes this outing so fun for me and the kids! This village had is the cutest place! Carolers were in the streets singing! Popcorn and warm chips were being roasted. Smore stations are set up along the cobble stone streets! I just love it!
Mike and the kids walked up to tour the Car Barn and enjoyed that! Our next stop was to go find us a Christmas tree.
We bought trees from various places over the years and last year we liked ours from Frysville, so we went there again. When we pulled in the driveway I made the comment about the two young men looking like they need some customers. We strolled and looked for a nice, big tree. We finally asked if they had any large trees? These were all 5-6 feet. We were wanting something like a 8 foot height. They told us they were sold out of that size. Because some of us had evening plans, Mike said, "Let's go." I wished to grab a family photo at this spot and tour the greenhouse but if we were going to go to another place for a tree, he was ready to go.
Sometimes expectations can get me down. I wished for a nice tree, a family photo, a stroll in the greenhouse and see the train inside. I understood and we all hoped in the truck in head out. We swung by Walmart but no real trees. We were on our way to another place when Mike asked about the tree I had on the back porch.
Last weekend, before leaving the cabin, I asked Mike to pull out a few small pine trees and one big tree for the back porch. He did! We potted the big pine and I strung lights around it for the back porch. His comment was to me at the cabin, "I can pull out a tree but you will not want it in the living room. The forest trees are not full." I was fine with that ... it was just for the back porch!
And now he's asking me if I would be OK with bringing that tree in the living room? Honestly, it took me a minute to get over my expectations and say yes. I knew it would not be like a nice, full tree but it would be free and bring more memories.
We drove back home and unpotted the tree. Mike cut the roots off of it and we stuck it in the tree stand. It now stands twinkling in our living room. The kids hung the ornaments and play Marble Chase while we laughed at the leaning star on top and the long neck tree we got for free!
Not everything is going to be picture perfect this season. We live in real life and sometimes there are disappointments and we need to refocus our priorities!
The tree is fine. I'm fine with it. Maybe we can get a nicer one the next year?
Mike and Ashlyn had a father/daughter night planned out and Austin couldn't wait to watch The Star with me while sipping on hot chocolate!!! I think this is one of the cutest Christmas movies out there and we love it so much!!!!
Celebrate Jesus!!!!! Celebrate it with your kids!
