Tuesday, November 27, 2018

It's beginning to smell like Christmas!

The past two days have been so busy but so fun!!!  Most of the men are off to the cabin to hunt!  (Mike is home this time.  Golfing has become his hobby now and so hunting happens only if he's got the urge or desire.  He decided to stay home and work instead.)  This is always when my mom and sister and I get together!  Sunday night, I went over to Jody's and Mom and Mim were there too!  The children played while we sat and chatted.

On Monday, we did our annual shopping day as sisters!!!  Jody's girls came over and stayed at my house with my kids while we us ladies went out for the day!  We (sister and sister-in-laws plus Mom) met at Waffle House for breakfast.  Then we went Christmas shopping!  The day was filled with lots of buys, lots of food, lots of good laughs and plenty of coupons!!!

Mom kept mentioning Park City Mall and so we ended up there around lunch.  We ate chine food in the food court and then shopped the mall! 


We also made stops at Old Navy, HomeGoods, Target, Chickfila for Peppermint Milk Shakes and more!!!  Jody really wanted to take us to her favorite thrift store and we sat and laughed as we all waited for her at the very end!  She was in her glory being here!  :)


We had the Yukon filled with great buys and plenty of gifts!  We finished the day with eating again but this time at MOD Pizza.  It was raining most of the day and now it was dark and we were tired and ready for rest!!!


We all went back to Jody's for our vehicles and went to pick up our dear children!

Thanks ladies for another fun day out together!!!!  What a blast!!!

Now, it time to get some gifts wrapped up one of these days and put under the tree!


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Sticking to our traditions, the day after shopping Mom, Jody and I bake Christmas cookies and do chocolates!  Mom and Jody came to my house today and we did lots of chocolate covered peanut butter crackers!


Jody did peanut clusters too.


We made some pretzel bark and peppermint bark.


We baked a batch of chocolate crinkles and one go of sand tarts!



The house again smells amazing! 

This is why Christmas is the best season of all!  Baking and playing with chocolates all the while listening to Christmas music playing in the background is heavenly!!!

It's the best time of year to celebrate and do extras with the family!!!

Happy birthday Jesus!!!  It's because of you that celebrate!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

We are in the Christmas Spirit!!!  On Friday, Matthew hauled down my Christmas decorations and Ashlyn had a blast setting up the nativity scene!!!
 



I could barely hold myself back this year from decorating for Christmas!  I wanted to do this weeks ago and hung on for dear life until Thanksgiving Day was past!  I love the Thanksgiving Season so much but I couldn't wait to roll over into the Christmas season!!!

So, here we are now decorating the house!  I was babysitting Colson and Warron for the day to so things didn't go too fast and I worked around the boys toys!  :)

Ashlyn had a cute time putting ornaments on this tiny tree!


The house looked a fright but we had it in tack by supper time!!!  The autumn décor got boxed up and the ornaments and deer and glittery trees were put on display!!!  I still have fresh greens to add here and there but just didn't get to it yet!

On Saturday, Mike was home and we decided to check out Elizabeth Tree Farm.  Cousin Anne suggested this experience and I am SO GLAD we decided to go!  The whole afternoon was a blast and we would totally do this again!!!

We started out by getting on an open wagon that horses pulled and they drove us out to an open Christmas Tree farmland!

 



They dropped us off and said to go grab a hand saw!


I don't ever go to places or do things like this without my camera strapped over my shoulder and boy am I happy with our photos from the day!!!  Like Hadassah said, "Mom makes a photo session out of everything!"  She's right.  I'm not ashamed of that!  It documents that we do things as a family and some day the kids will love to look back at these and 'remember'!


 We walked around and Hadassah found the perfect tree!  Mike guessed it to be around 6 feet tall.  Him and Matthew took turns sawing it down!  So cool!


She kept going from tree to tree saying, "Nope, not perfect.  Nope, not perfect."


Austin sawed.  Ashlyn sawed.

And even though Hadassah is right and I take pictures of these kinds of events, she loves every bit of it!


We tagged our tree and then a tractor came to pick it up for us!  This was so much fun!!!




The tractor took our tree to the horse wagon and then we hopped on it and went back to the farmhouse.  But first, we had do take some more photo's!!!





I asked Mike to make the kids laugh from behind me and then suddenly he took off right in front of the camera!!!  Total photo bomb here!!!  :)))


They are growing right before my eyes!!!






Heading back to the wagon!







We rode back on the wagon with our tree and when they went to measure it and price it … it was 9 1/2 feet tall!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now, we don't have room in our house for a nine and a half foot tree so they had to cut it down to seven feet but we stilled paid for a nine foot tree!!!  I made a mental note for the next time!!!


The farms barn was filled with a Christmas gift shop and free hot chocolate.  It also had a train display, Santa Claus and pretty lights!


We bought some soft pretzels and roasted peanuts there on the farm and then strapped the tree down just as it was starting to rain!!!


Because they wrapped up the tree in a tight rope, it was much easier to bring inside!  There wasn't near the dirt and drag of pine needles all the way inside!  Mike and I put on the lights and the kids put on the ornaments!!!


And then the star!!!


We really had the time of our lives doing it this way this year!!!  I think we have started a new tradition and we will be doing this again!!!  Going to a tree farm and experiencing all the sights and smells are top on my list and we hit a grand slam with it all this past Saturday!!!

The house now smells from fresh pine!  It's filled with glittery ornaments.  The star is shining from on top of the tree!  I don't have any presents wrapped yet but they will go under the tree one of these days!!!

We are so blessed and a day like this is just another reason why I love this season the best of all!!!  It's the extra family events and time that makes it so special!!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!