I have a serious case of the warm fuzzies
going on tonight as I wrap up my night with this journal update – even after
spending hours on my computer doing my usual school night studies and family
business work. That’s just how awesome
our day has been!
While we had a really good morning too, the
fun kicked up into high gear after church; starting with the news that we had a
lot of extra friends coming with us to the Christmas tree farm today. The best part of that for me was that Michael
was getting another day off from helping out at the Inn so that he could do
this with me – and Rebecca and Lucas were joining his family and going on the
adventure too. The Norton’s even came
home with us for lunch so that they didn’t have to drive out to their farm
first; so we had a lot of fun with that too.
I won’t do the full list of tree-hunting adventurers from here that were
at the Christmas tree farm today; but I will add that all of our local family
was there except for the two new Moms and babies; Grandpa Duncan and Grandma
Mercy came along too; and Rowen and Tim were there with his parents. There was a Bassett family contingent too; so
Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden had Sophia with them; and Michael and I helped
out with junior kid control on a regular basis.
Before I get to that part of the report
though, let’s back up for a second to the lunch break. I really loved getting to spend that hour or
so with Lucas, Emma, and their family.
It’s funny that Dad works with Claire every weekday in the office except
for his week in the city; yet the rest of us don’t see her all that often; and
we rarely do things together with both families. While our meal was just soup and mini-sub
sandwiches; it was the time together that was special. I’d add in something about doing that more
often, but we’re all really busy; have lots of other, higher priority
responsibilities; and that just isn’t very likely to happen. I’ll just be grateful for having one really
awesome afternoon with our friends and family and leave it at that.
Even our sub-group of family and friends
needed quite a convoy of minivans and trucks to have room for everyone; and it
seemed like the parking lot at the Christmas tree farm was half-filled with
Witch Falls visitor vehicles – though that’s an exaggeration. Needing to split up and go on a half-dozen
hay rides to pick out our trees isn’t embellished, though; and we only had ‘our’
family, the Nortons, and Landrys with us.
Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia were able to spend some time with us too; but
only because the Bassetts and their group were on the ride immediately after
ours; and they were tree-hunting in the same area.
I thought that picking out a few trees on
my first visit to the farm was a big deal, but today was crazy as we picked out
twelve trees for our group alone. Having
a really great afternoon for weather was a bonus, if not all that Christmassy
feeling with no snow; but then it probably wouldn’t have been as much fun doing
all of that while freezing our tails off.
We did split up into smaller groups to get those trees chosen, so we
didn’t mess up the hayride schedule at all; and our guides and tree experts
kept us on-track too with their enthusiastic help.
While the hayride and tree hunt is the main
event of a visit to the place; the hot drinks, snacks, and tour of the
Christmas store is my favorite part of the adventure. Michael and I didn’t have any personal
special moments while we were there; but there were some special family moments
– like having Uncle Mark and Uncle Nick pick up ‘baby’s first Christmas’
ornaments for Caleb and Sebastian. We
did get to have fun with Rowen and Tim – once the boys had finished helping out
with getting the trees loaded onto the various trucks; though we also had at
least a small group of kids with us too as we had our treats and wandered the
store. I picked up a few new decorations
for the lounge, and Mom and Dad had a few purchases too; but we probably spent
more on the Christmas cookies, cider, and other treats to go than on anything
else – except for the trees.
The trip home was fast compared to doing
the rounds delivering trees; and Michael and I were on that crew as we dropped
off trees at the Everett, Carrington, Stone, and Ayres homes before delivering
the last one to our place. Not all of
those trees were huge, but most were; and hauling eight-foot trees and setting
them up in stands takes a while; so it was nearly dinnertime when we were
finished – with just enough time left over to clean up before sitting down to
eat in the kitchen. We didn’t have any company
for that meal – other than Michael; so that was the quietest part of the day
for us since Tai Chi this morning. Some
of the other families were doing tree trimming tonight too; but Rowen was with
Tim; Rebecca was out at the Norton farm/ and the rest of our collective group
of family and friends were doing their own thing too – including Naomi and
Aiden.
By the way, we picked up trees for the
Seagers and Drapers too; but their deliveries were on the Norton’s or Landry’s
trucks. Dad’s truck wasn’t the only one
that was overloaded with trees today.
Next year we might need to think about taking trailers too!
Dinner was a crock pot lasagna that Mom put
on to cook before we left; along with a salad and garlic bread with
cheese. I loved that, and we all loved
the easy clean-up that allowed us to get to the tree trimming fairly quickly
after we finished eating. We didn’t do a
dessert tonight, but made up for that by dipping into the Christmas cookie and
cider stash we’d brought home with us from the Christmas store. Decorating the tree and living room is going
to be more fun every year as Ethan and Ehlana get older, and I hope that I’ll
get to do that with Michael every year from now on too – though I’m sure there
will be years when we’ll be busy at the Inn or with his family instead. Tonight was magical, though; and I mean that
in a literal sense. ‘^)
That’s right, folks – we were on our own;
and tree trimming using our Magi gifts is seriously awesome! Okay, Mom was technically doing a lesson with
Michael, Ethan, Ehlana, and me; but let’s not kid ourselves – we were doing it
because it was ultra-fun. In our house,
at least for tonight; having Santa and his reindeer fly was an option – along with
dancing snowflakes; glowing and floating angels; and Christmas lights that
sparkled and flashed without having the strands plugged in yet.
Try it sometime – you’ll love it!
Michael and I had some boring stuff to take
care of once the tree was trimmed and we’d cleaned up; so we were all in the office
for an hour or so doing our homework.
For mom and Dad, that was business; the twins are starting their college
exams next week, so they got ready for that; and Michael and I did our school
homework. Since we had been able to do
the decorating fairly quickly, so even with the homework session; we still had
time to play music for a while and even watch a bedtime Christmas show with
Ethan and Ehlana in the lounge before Michael needed to head home after we
tucked them in for the night.
That only gave us a small window of
opportunity for a minor make-out session too; but we were okay with that when
everything else today has been so amazing.
If he hadn’t been set free for the day; we wouldn’t have gotten to spend
any time together at all.
The rest of my night after he left has been
all work and studying; and I’m up even later than usual because I want to work
ahead this week to get ready for doing as little studying or family business
work as possible over the holidays – and during the last week of school too if
I can manage that. My only extra news
from tonight is the college family and friends update, and that’s easy – they’re
all totally focused on final exams for the semester – and start writing them
tomorrow. I’m sure that they all wish they’d
been able to come and play with us today instead of cramming for exams; but
they do get to make up for that with a longer Christmas break than we get to
have. I’m not wishing to get a month or
more off at Christmas if the trade-off would be starting the school year in
mid-August or staying in school until mid-July; but most colleges do manage to
get finished by mid or late-May too; and that might be nice if we could do that
too.
It’s too late for that kind of musing, and
I really should get started on my nap time; so let’s do the Christmas music
video thing and call it a night.
This Christmas song was one of my favorites
from when Mom and I were on our own, and our holiday celebrations really were
very small compared to the big-family and friends Christmases we’ve been
blessed to share since moving here to Witch Falls.
May the Magi Force be with you!
