Holiday Happiness!

This has been a fabulous week for being in the Christmas Spirit!

First stop was last Sunday at Grzenda's Christmas Tree Farm. This is a beautiful place to get a tree. We were a bit unprepared for the weather (mix of snow and rain and very windy) but thankfully we bumped into some friends and they gave us a wool blanket, a Carhartt jacket for Tim, and a bright orange hat. I didn't have a hat with me, so Tim gave me his black hat and he decided to sport the orange hat. He knew that was the proper fashion maneuver for his super sensitive pregnant wife. We hopped on the tractor and rode past a beautiful frozen lake, on to the field of trees. They were magnificent! Tim sawed down our tree while Samuel stood on the side lines holding his very large snowball.

I think our tree is the best one we've ever had! I was amazed at how perfectly shaped it is and how great it smells! We brought the tree home, stuck it in the stand and guess what else we did? FORGOT to water it for the rest of the day. Between Tim's usual absent-mindedness and my pregnancy induced spaciness. We both forgot to water the tree. I was so upset I could cry. We put water in before bed and checked it the next morning. It had barely absorbed any water and there was a ton of needles on the floor. Yikes! We had to save our tree. So Tim had to take it out of the stand and make a fresh cut the next day and it's doing fine now.

Samuel "helped" me decorate the tree by pulling the lights off as I was putting them on. Somehow we managed to get all the lights and ornaments on and Samuel is just loving the tree! Probably loving it too much as he is constantly rearranging the ornaments.

Don't go into shock. Yes, that is me in an apron. The second stop was baking at KT's house. For those of you who know me. I just don't bake. I love to cook meals but baking to me is tedious, controlled and way too precise. But I figured with KT's help I could enjoy the process.

We made Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls and Andrea's famous caramel corn. The boys played together and napped at the same time.

We enjoyed the silence and a cup of coffee or two!

I made a second batch of caramel corn at home and my little buddy found a new sweet treat that might have replaced lunch if I didn't intervene. Every few minutes a small hand would pop up and steel a few kernals of corn while it was cooling.

The end result was several lovely gifts all ready to ship out to friends and family. I delivered the cinnamon rolls locally to some of my favorite people. I then made these cute goodie bags filled with caramel corn, a Christmas movie and a few other treats to my family members who have children and live out of town. This was actually KT's idea, so I have to give her credit. All my packages are mailed out and I, for the first time in holiday history, will not be waiting on huge lines at the post office with just enough time to get gifts out for the holidays. I guess this week has given me a nice sense of accomplishment.