Wednesday, December 13, 2017

"Let's Cut Down That Christmas Tree!"

Another busy and full weekend is in the books! I've had a lot of writing and projects to do during my "free" time. I was lucky enough to dedicate late afternoon on Saturday as working time, followed by a movie date night in with Hubs (Christmas movie season! We still have yet to watch Love Actually). Sunday was spent at Starbucks and our favorite tree farm picking out our Christmas tree.


I met friends at Flix Brewhouse to (finally) see Bad Moms Christmas. The movie was hilarious. It's refreshing to go to a movie theater and see an adult film rather than an animated feature! I kinda can't believe myself--I went to a brewhouse and drank a soda. I had to be up early to get everyone ready for volunteering at the Children's Museum and really didn't feel like dealing with a post-beer headache the next morning.


Hubs is in his busy season at work, so that leaves the minis and I to keep busy. Since I'm on the Board of Directors, I've been volunteering a lot of my time to helping out at the Children's Museum on the weekend. The minis helped me out this weekend too. While there were a few tense moments, they did a great job and enjoyed playing/helping. Obviously, we'll be doing it again.



After our volunteering morning/afternoon, I treated the minis to an early dinner at their favorite Mexican restaurant. There were so many stories told as we ate. The youngest mini cracks me up as she tells stories. I couldn't resist taking video of her. If you can't follow along, she's talking about dolls (specifically the "need" for another American Girl doll).



The rest of Saturday involved Christmas movies, working (for me)/writing, laundry, and overall relaxing family time. Sunday started off slow with donuts and Starbucks. Then we spent some time at Walnut Ridge Tree Farm picking out our tree. Everyone had a different opinion on which type of tree we wanted: short sharp needles that hold any ornament or a fluffy soft tree that can't hold ornaments because the branches aren't strong enough? Big debates at the tree farm. We seemed to keep the workers entertained as we not so happily shared our opinions with each other. Eventually we settled on "our tree" and we all left happy.



Elizabeth came home one day from school telling a story about a boy in her class and how the other girls told her to wink at him. Hubs told her, "oh we don't wink at boys." She's definitely my daughter because now she winks at anyone and anything. We walked into Starbucks for drinks and cake pops. Elizabeth walked into Bucks and instantly spotted this "winky mug." It's now her new hot chocolate mug.



Our cutting down the Christmas tree tradition started four years ago when I had a weekend filled with events and Hubs had the kids. Instead of putting up the fake tree we had then, he took the kids to this tree farm and cut one down. It's now a family tradition that we all look forward to every year. As we stepped down the path, the middle one sang, "let's cut down that Christmas tree! Oh Christmas tree! I'm cutting you down!"




The big highlight of the outing was when Harrison picked up "a dinosaur bone!" Actually, it was "oh cool! Look mom. I found dinosaur bones with teeth!" It's a deer jaw (we think) and it's now in our Christmas tree as a decoration....but not before he used it to torture big bro, who was nearly in tears about all of the "germs and bacteria that jaw has!" Harrison was nearly slapped in the face as he teased "the rest of the bones is in the tree. They might fall out at you when dad chops the tree down." I can't help but to laugh at this kid as my hair turns grey (from him).













The boys got to help shake the tree out and strap it to the top of the van.



And they helped put lights on the tree.....and then played air guitar to "Run Run Rudolph."



One of our nightly routines is laying clothes out for the next day. I always hold my breath to see what they come out of their rooms with. This was Elizabeth's outfit for Monday.


I love looking back at our weekend's like this. It's a good way to remember the things I have to be grateful for. A lot of our time lately has been spent working and then relaxing to catch up on life. I'm really looking forward to our weekend ahead: a weekend of all play!!