::tree hunting::

We've only done it once before, but we want it to be a serious family tradition. Every year we go up in our mountains and find ourselves a special Christmas tree.
There was a big snow storm predicted for friday into saturday, and we were really hoping that it wouldn't stop our tree hunt. It was the only possible day to do it in weeks.
So, though it snowed a bit--much less than predicted--we didn't let it stop us!!

It's interesting searching for trees, especially out here in the desert. It's not like there are just a billion perfect ones sitting there for the picking. Especially when one has a car full of little 'uns and has to stay close to the road and the car.

And it's tough because a tree that looks good from the car can look completely different up close.
This is a cute little one, isn't it?

Well, not so little now that we see it in perspective, right?

It wasn't quite what we were looking for, so we pressed onward.

Finally, after some more bumpy snowy driving we spied a good looking one. And when we got out to study it, turned out that there was one behind it a little ways that was perfect! So we went for it.

It's like a puzzle trying to see the tree in all the snowy branches.
It was a little ways down a snowy bank. It was also super tall, and we only needed about the top 10 feet, so we cut it a little higher than usual.
Sandy was so good and patient.

He just hung out in the car and ate pretzels. Then when he ran out he squeaked and screamed until somebody filled his little fists again.

Here are the boys cutting the tree.

Max had the hold the saw for a bit while Kris moved the car--there was other traffic up in the snowy mountains, surprisingly.

Then he got tired and put the saw down, and when he thought nobody was looking he had a little snack.

Hah.
And here's the tree! Huge!!



And then we all hung out while Kris did the tough work of tying the tree up top.

We really like this picture. It gives a good feel for the whole experience.



Then on the way out we searched out a cute little tree for our other room. I got greedy and just couldn't leave without more than one.

When we got this one home it turns out it's a truly lopsided little guy. But fun nonetheless.

And afterwards we got to eat Dairy Queen, since that's really the only place to eat within miles. I guess that's part of the tradition!
And here are a couple of bonus pictures of our Sand, since he was stuck in the car the whole time. He was looking very festive and deserves some attention too!


And today I got the lights on, so more tree reports to follow!

**And I forgot to mention the poor Land Rover. It's truly our adventure car, but the Infiniti had to stand in for it this year since it's totally non-functional. Kris has plans to trade some dental work for repairs in the next year though, so we'll see if the poor thing can be revived. We're thinking of you Land Grover!

::a twist on tradition::

For the last four years Max & I have made delicious halloween sugar cookies. And then I always blog about it. Of course.
So after making it a tradition, and cooking them in four different kitchens in four different houses, we certainly couldn't miss a year just because we're tired and busy!
I was planning on making the cookies over halloween weekend--in fact I made the dough and refrigerated it on saturday. It was while doing that I realized that we had been infiltrated by a yucky fat mouse (which of course didn't help with the workload of the weekend.)
I was planning on finishing up the cookies sunday afternoon, but one of the families that we're good friends with in the ward invited us over for pumpkin pie. Who would refuse something awesome like that?
Come monday the dough was still in the fridge, and there were no delicious cookies to be seen.

We didn't give up. We modified the tradition. This weekend we got out the fall cookie cutters and made leaves, acorns and pumpkins instead of ghosts, cats & jack-o-lanterns.

Good thing I bought those leaf cookie cutters last year, that's all I can say! (Even though Kris thought one of the shapes was a christmas tree, silly boy.)

And we set to work.

It was a fun sunday afternoon activity for the family. This is the first time that Kris got to be involved, yay!

I was about 1000 degrees when we got finished, and I was exhausted. It was worth it though. They're delicious.
Max was my decorating helper again, of course. And somehow he managed to spill exponentially less sprinkles everywhere than even last time. It's nice that he's getting more coordinated--he doesn't listen much better, but he's at least got more hand dexterity!
It is funny to compare now with the first time we did it though--in 2006 I guess. He was only two and it was quite the undertaking to make the cookies together. He's much more capable now of course, and most of the time much more fun to hang out with.

It's fun to have traditions that let us see how time has passed and how fast little ones grow. And traditions that are tasty too. Yum.

::christmas report::

We had a great Christmas day this year. I've been struggling with a cold ever since the beginning of Dec, and up until Christmas I felt pretty bad, but luckily I felt good on the day itself.
Here are the boys at the table eating our semi-traditional breakfast of Captain Crunch. Kris told me a while back that it was a tradition in his family to eat that for breakfast Christmas morning, but his mom tells me that's not so--I think he was just trying to work captain crunch in to the deal somehow. I personally prefer German pancakes, but that's ok--I lean more towards my family's tradition of a big breakfast brunchy feast on Christmas morning. I'm thinking maybe one of these days we can combine all the traditions into one big wonderful breakfast buffet that includes chocolate.

They're wearing their Christmas eve PJs. Max's have dogs dressed as reindeer all over them, and Kris has Red Sox pants. Pretty fun. My mom got me some PJs too, but I don't have a photo of me, of course.
Max also has all his santa and stocking toys at the table--important to have entertainment while eating, naturally.

Sultan got in on the fun with a squeaky crawdad. He actually seems to like it which is surprising. He's not really a toys kind of guy.

Here's the little guitar that Santa brought to the family.

I think it's a half size little nylon string. We're going to give Max some guitar lessons starting next month, we'll see how it goes.
Santa also likes to leave notes with very elaborately disguised handwriting. I'm not really sure how long that's going to be feasible. Somebody should maybe take some calligraphy lessons.

We had a great morning. We gave Max a little clock and told him he wasn't allowed to leave his room or bother us until 7AM. He woke up right around 7 we think and was up and about at around 7:15. It was nice not to be waked at the crack of dawn.

Our families took good care of us. I wish we could've seen them all in person, but it was great to be able to open gifts from them even though we're so far away.
We camped out on the floor and had fun with the gifts.

Check out my awesome socks my sis-in-law and bro gave me.

This happens to be the only photo of me taken the whole day, so enjoy it.
Kelly & Lechelle sent us Lego Star Wars, which has been much enjoyed this week by the men of the house.

Max was finally given the whoopie cushion he's been dreaming of. Kris got it for him. I had told him I didn't want one in the house. But oh well, isn't that what dads do? Ralphie certainly wouldn't have gotten his red rider beebee gun without his dad. But Kris, don't get any ideas. If you get my son a beebee gun you're "out of the family."

We spent time in the morning assembling toys. Max got a fabulous remote control semi truck from his Grandma which took quite a while to put together. It's very cool.

After that we got to do some video chatting with both of our families.
Mine:

My family opened their gifts on the chat which was fun because then I could see their reactions and it was almost like really being there--almost.
Kris's fam:

Our chatting situation is always crowded and chaotic:

Max had at least one meltdown with screaming while "on air" and had to get sent to his room--but what would a true video chat be without that?

We had some friends come over in the afternoon and eat a late lunch. It was fun because their boys get along with Max well and we got to have a little grown up time. I didn't get any pictures of that though.
But I did get pictures of the yummy sugar cookies I made for the event.

And Max's favorites, the penguins. The other little boys loved them too. I would've made all penguins if I'd have known how popular they were going to be.

Max ended up with a lot of wheeled contraptions. He likes them.
We got a set of little cars at Disney World that are vehicles from a bunch of the popular rides. He really enjoys them.

It was a great day. It was nice to be together, to talk to our families. It was nice to feel the Christmas spirit and think about the Savior. It was nice to know that we're loved by so many wonderful people.
And it was nice to go to bed that night, well worn out.

::halloween tradition::

Max and I made a batch of halloween sugar cookies for the first time four years ago, in our first house in Kansas City.  It was a bit of an ordeal, making cookies with a two year old, and I just wasn't that good at cooking back then (I'm only slightly better now.)
But they turned out so delicious and cute that we had to do it again next year. Or maybe it was the fact that Sultan ate most of the cookies that year--we accidentally left him in the house and the cookies on the counter when we went to deliver some to friends. We needed to make up for that.

So we've made cookies for the last four years, and the crazy thing, in four different kitchens. You think that sounds like too much moving? Why yes, yes it is.

So we made our traditional batch this week. I added a few new cookie cutters last year taking advantage of after holiday sales. It was fun to get to use them. Max's new favorite is the ghost.

I like him because he only requires white frosting, yay.

Max is getting better at helping--at least he doesn't just spill all the cookie cutters on the floor and roll them around in the flour like he did the first year.
He's my decorator now. Last year we got M&Ms and candy corn and he made faces on all the pumpkins. I wish I would've done that this year, instead we just did the standard sprinkles and such. But it was still fun. I only had to yell at Max 10 or 12 times for dumping the whole tube of sprinkles on one cookie.

Fun to make with my Max, but even more fun to eat. Which is what Kris thought when he came home from work to a kitchen full of delicious cookies! Mmmmmm.