Christmas Tree

Well another year another tree. We decided to go get our tree this year the day before Thanksgiving. I just looked at our calendar and there was not a free weekend day until late Dec that we could go and get one. . and I think that if you are going to go cut a tree down you need to at least have it for a month or so to justify the death of a pine so that is when we went. hee hee
We usually go up to the cabin and get one, but we didn't leave until 2:00pm so we thought that we could get one a little closer than to go all the way up in the mountains. So we just pulled off the main road and got out and started looking. Josie and I walked and played in the snow for about 20 or so minutes before we decided to go back because I hadn't even seen one tree that I would even consider. So we met Joshy back at the Truck--well my parents had come with us and my dad had just disappeared into the forest. We decided to wait for him to come bck so we could drive farther in. We waited and waited until finally we were getting nervous. We then get a call on the phone. It is my dad and he is lost somewhere. He said that he could hear cars so he headed for the road. Luckly we found the road and him walking down it. It was pretty fun then, but I just keep thinking about what could have happened. Scary--
SO to avoid that senerio again we hustled up to the place where we ususally get our trees and cut one down there. It was pretty dark by then but we got it home. And it looks great!! I love love real trees. It was super fun.

Josie and Trooper helped me put up the lights and decorations. I went to Troops bedroom to get him some clothes and when I came back Trooper was at the top of the ladder having the time of his life. He was super super giggly so I couldn't help but snap a picture. Later Josie was helping me untangle some lights. I hear here in the corner say, "Oh no, OH Shoot" and kinda whining. I was like "Josie are you ok? Is something wrong?" She says "No mom, I am just having some DRAMA over here with the lights." ha ha She is so Drama herself, sometimes I have to remind myself that she is just 3 and not 15.
I think that they had a lot of fun playing in the lights and with the ornaments. So on to the Christmas season we go. It is crazy like at the top of the rollercoaster, the anticipations is awful but super fun. So from the shopping and baking and decorating and sewing and scraping, to parties for family, Church, work, friends and neighbors, to young woman and Elders quorum and then Joshy's birthday festivities we defiantly have a full plate but I love Christmas it is my favorite time of the year.

Gobble Gobble

Wow I haven't blogged for a while. Oops. Things just got super busy fun. Like the rest of you. Thanksgiving was really fun. We spent the day with Joshy's family. It was so fun for our kids to play with their cousins. And we really enjoyed being with almost (we missed you Sara and Daniel) all of his brothers and sisters. The day was absolutely gorgeous so the kids mostly spent the day outside. Dinner was wonderful. I love yams. I don't know why I didn't like them as a kid cause now I think that they are almost better than the pie. This year Joshys mom made them with apples and an oatmeal crispy stuff--ahh they were so good.

The boys played with guns after dinner for a while. Trooper, much to my dismay was super excited about that. We played a few games, looked at some Black Friday adds, ran out of gas (that is whole different story) and then had some pie. It was a great day. We did attempt to get a picture with all of the cousins and that was super super funny. Here is a fav:

The day after we packed up early and took our kids down to SLC. My parents like to take all their grandkids down to see Temple Square at Christmas. So they got hotel rooms downtown and we spent Friday and Saturday there. It was great. I asked Josie what her favorite part about the weekend was, thinking it would be something like the christmas lights or swimming or pizza or McDonalds or the Dino museum but she insisted that it was the "elagaters"--you know those huge elagaters in the conference center. hee hee She makes me laugh--we had to get special permission from the couple missionaries in the center so that she could go down them.

I was sooo soo soo impressed by the primary children's center in the Church History and Art center. They have a whole set up for kids to learn about being a child of God. It had a place for the kids to pretend like they were mommys and dadies with newborn babys (Josie was in heaven hee hee no pun intended), a place for them to go to church and lead the music, dress up clothes for a Christmas nativity, had puzzles on the walls about gospel topics (Troop loved that) lots and lots of art projects and activities. It was a lot of fun and I am so glad that we did it. Josh and I were talking in the primary room about how there really is just a great feeling there. Crazy that in the middle of a huge busy city on a crazy busy weekend there could be a place of such peace and contentment. Then again not crazy, wonderful and awesome! We had a great Thanksgiving--so much to be grateful for.