Oh Christmas Tree and Crazy Hair...

Saturday we went on search for the perfect Christmas tree. We drove up to Beaver Dam (about 28 miles) and trudged, yes trudged, through a foot of snow with Laura and Kaitlyn. Snowballs were thrown, three-year olds fell into the snow and cried because she couldn't get up, and eventually we found it...

...a 10-foot Pinyon pine tree. It was the perfect shape and didn't have any companions sprouting from it.  Aaron pulled out the handy dandy saw and sliced away (no chainsaws for us). I'm glad I told the girlies to move because they would have been flattened. Aaron and I dragged it back to the car (it was quite heavy) and actually got it onto the roof of our Pacifica. Aaron tied it off masterfully and home we headed.

We got the tree inside, but the tree stand Mom and Dad had was way too small and cracked, so the tree fell over. We leaned the poor thing against the wall for a day and a half until Dad got back with a new tree stand (It didn't take him that long to go get one. He had to go to Provo and brought one home with him.).

This morning Aaron and I carried the tree through the house into the other living room and got it standing and gave it some much needed water. I then hung the lights in preparation of the girlies' arrival home from school. After much sorting and hanging, this is the finished result:

the biggest Christmas tree we have ever had! Might I say it seems more a Christmas bush than tree, but it smells wonderful and makes my girlies happy.

What more is needed?

The following is a random Avery photo... she just had to wear her grandpa's crazy Halloween hair.

She thought she was pretty funny...

She was right.

New York City...

My mom and I had been planning our New York trip since I was a senior in high school.  Since I graduated ten years ago we decided it was finally time to go.  We left November 19th and got home Thanksgiving Day.  What an amazing place!  I've never been to such a busy city before.  We staying in Queens, but were able to take the subway into Times Square each day.  If you've never ridden on a subway you are truly missing out.  What a great mode of transportation... I loved it!  We both felt perfectly safe the entire time.  And there were so many nice people.  In fact, the first day we were there we met a large group of missionaries going to the Manhattan Temple.  It was fun to talk to them. 

We spent the majority of our time in Manhattan, and we just walked from there to the other places we wanted to see.  We went to Central Park and ate one of the best hot dogs ever, walked 5th Avenue (went into Tiffany's to dream), walked around Times Square many times... the ToysRUs was pretty amazing.  They had a six story ferris wheel and one of the t-rexs from Jurassic Park in there.  We went to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty (I was so proud... I didn't get sick on the ferry) and went to the 86th floor observatory in the Empire State Building.  Chinatown was awful... too crowded and frustrating!  Battery Park was pretty cool... there were many street vendors there.  We saw the United Nations building and Wall Street.  The World Trade Center site made me cry though I've never been super patriotic.  Seeing the memorials that have been placed there and to think of the lives that were lost was humbling.

The shopping was amazing... FAO Schwartz was an amazing toy store.  I wished I had a lot more money to get the girlies stuff there.  They had a muppet maker area, kind of like Build-A-Bear where you create your own muppet.  Alas, they were $117, so no muppet for the girlies.  We saw Rockefeller Center and the tree being strung with lights.  I got Aaron a Dwight bobblehead from the NBC store and we saw the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes.  Man, they can dance!  The girlies would have loved it.

A chipping sparrow and pidgeon at the Liberty Island Ferry boarding dock.

Times Square our first day.

View of part of the city from the Empire State Building.

Lady Liberty herself.

The fountain in Central Park that was in Enchanted.

Overall the very best part for me was spending a week with my mom.  She has always been my best friend and I love to spend time with her.  To be honest it has been hard living so far from her the past year and a half.  I suppose California isn't that far from us, but I lived 5 blocks from her for 4 years.  It makes a difference.  I love you Mom!  Thanks for such an awesome trip!