'O Christmas Tree'

YAY, for our first Christmas Tree! My family has always had live Christmas trees; mikie, on the other hand has never had one! A fake Christmas tree was not a compromise that I was willing to make, good thing I didn’t have to! Back in Maryland to cut down a Christmas tree we would go to a Christmas tree farm that was full of perfectly grown and groomed trees. We would search row by row until we found ours, a flawless, full, perfect Christmas tree.

Cutting down a Christmas tree looks a little bit different here. Like everywhere in America there are lots full of pre-cut Christmas trees, but if you want to cut one down they send you into the forest! This is how it works; you go to the forestery center (we live in Plumas National Forest) and buy a pink tag for $10. Then they give you a map and send you on your way. Here is our pink tag, as soon as you cut your tree you have to tag it. On the map, the green area is where you are allowed to cut. Then you go Christmas tree hunting! You will find nothing perfectly full, or round, each tree is different. Perfectly imperfect!

                                      

I think these might be a little too big :-)

And we found it! After you find it, it is really hard to stop looking. I feel like my eye's are constantly on the look out for christmas trees! It's so fun to watch all the cars pass by our house with christmas trees plopped on top of them!

 Here is a round cut from the bottom of the tree, we are going to make it into an ornamnet so we will always remeber our first christmas tree. Also we circled where we found our tree on the map.

Here it is....

I had fun playing around on my new camera taking pictures of our tree. Here it is all decorated!

Again, a shot with the new camera!

Having some fun with shutter speed.

[Big Girl Camera]

My overly excited husband has been begging to give me my Christmas gift for over a week now. After a battle every night, and explaining to him that Christmas is still at least 2 weeks away, I gave in! He pays attention, and he knows me better then I know myself! So here it is my upgrade! Hopefully no more iPhone pictures, now I can share with you clearer details of our life. Now to learn how to use this thing…any suggestions?

{Glimpse of Glory}

This is what has been going on here in Northern California for the past week. As we gear up to go "home" for Christmas, our tiny little house will be covered with 10 more inches of snow. This weekend we took some time to drive up 'our' mountain to play in the snow! Yes, we still take the time to play together; it's good for us and good for our marriage!

The picture below is actually from Tahoe, a few weekends ago. Somehow I captured all of these pictures on my iphone...

 

This is out backyard, but not for long! We are actually moving houses this January. I say moving houses becuase we will be moving less then a minute away from where we live now. There will be more to come about that later.

 I am thankful, thankful for this Holiday Season where I can celebrate HOPE! The hope that I could not live without! Especially in the messiness of this world, this peaceful view is a tiny glimpse into the glory that God has for us! We are created with the ability to experience a small foretaste of heaven. Today I am finding it here, in my back yard, thousands of miles away from 'Home'.

Christmas Wreath

Last Year we went "all natrual' DIY Christmas Wreath (thanks Mom!) This year I decicded to be a little creative with my wreath making. Here's how I made it, missing in this picture is my hot glue gun (the most importnat tool!)

 Here is what I used. The letter K, pointy sparkely decorations (from Michaels), a wreath, and there is my glue gun in the very back! Don't mind our messy table.

  I painted the letter K in a "chevron pattern", not my best work, next time I will tape the pattern and not paint it freehand.

Here it is! It is hanging on our front door now, I am hoping to get a picture soon!