Christmas Tree Hunting

Be warned! This may be the longest post in the history of blogs. Seriously! But, again, better late than never. We had a great Thanksgiving at my parents house in good 'ole Esky. We missed half of the family that couldn't be with us this year. We really did miss all of you. Although it wasn't as hard to fight for pie. Of course, I didn't get many pics of the celebration because both hands were involved in eating...the entire time. Pics of that will follow. I did manage a few shots of Aubrey making turkeys. They loved it. Good job grandma. Her crazy hair always makes me laugh. I think she managed to use a whole bottle of glue on her cute turkey. The next morning it was stuck to the table.

The day after Thanksgiving we went Christmas tree "hunting". Yes, most things revolve around hunting in my family. We went up Main Canyon and ended up with a little bit of snow to play in. The kids loved it although it was only about 30 degrees. On the way up the mountain.Finding a good tree with me is a NIGHTMARE! I am so stinkin' picky that it is annoying even to me. Every year we are the last ones to find our tree and by then it is getting dark and Josh and my dad are saying, "Cally, you have 5 more minutes to find a tree or you're not getting one". So, I end up running around frantically to find the perfect tree. Well, this year was very different. Yes, very different. Josh and I walked around for about 5 minutes

(count them...1...2...3...4...5...)

and a miracle happened. We found a beautiful tree. I started screaming that we were the first ones to cut our tree. I was so excited that we weren't searching for forever. Or maybe it was the competitive side coming out of me because we won...not that there was a competition in the first place, but everything is a competition in my family. Even though we don't admit it. :) But, in all reality it was just nice to not be hunting the entire time for a perfect tree.

She LOVED her big snowball.

Josh holding our 5 minute find.

Aubrey was tired of walking.

Vince, Grandma, and Aubrey

Cassy, Cort, and Justin

Me and my super cute kiddos.

Cute, cute, cute!

My hip, hap, Daddy-O...a little inside family joke.

This is the look we all got when Josh stopped the piggy back ride.

Jordyn having fun even though her shoes were waterproofed with plastic bags.

We Allen's can fix any problem. :)

Helping everyone else find trees...because remember, we won.

Cort-a-licious

This is one of those "bring back a memory" picture. I remember LOVING to do this in my dad's old Ford's steering wheel. If you never did this in your dad's truck you missed out on a lot of fun. (You can't see the movement, but you rock side to side for maximum funness.)

Santa always seems to fly over while my family is getting a Christmas tree. He always leaves us a little treat. Vince decided that Santa's toy bag had a hole in it and he didn't notice candy was falling out. When the candy trail ended, Vince thought Santa must have fixed the hole. Lucky us that he didn't fix it too soon. Here's some shots of the kids gathering the loot. It was dark and

f r e e z i n g by this point.

We had to finish the night off with a fire, hot cocoa, and chili. The wood was so wet from the snow that we had to improvise, Allen style, to get it started - gasoline and motor oil. But, it worked and ended the day perfectly. We won't talk about Vince getting sick on the way back to Grandma & Grandpa's. That might ruin the serene setting.

Before we left, the kids helped decorate the tree for Grandma & Grandpa. They had a lot of fun. Too bad Grandma had a bad allergic reaction to it a few days later. It had to be taken out of their house and now it's in Lane's. Poor Christmas with no tree! This is a bell that my Grandpa Ogden used for his sheep.Vince decorating.Aubrey decorating. I love this girl and her crazy hair!

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday with family and are now ready for the Christmas holiday excitement and some more weight gain.