Saturday, December 27, 2008

A Blessed Holiday

Our family had an amazing and memorable holiday. We went the day after Thanksgiving to get our tree. What a fun outing. The weather was great for tree hunting. We began at The Red Barn Tree Farm in Orting.The whole family jumped on the train and headed out into the woods to find the perfect tree.
We ended our day at Snowshoe Tree farm... It was so much fun to tromp through the woods in search of the perfect tree. I think there was a light shining down on the perfect one... at least I think I could see that light in my girls eyes when they chose their tree.
We tried to conserve some of our energy for the end of our day when we wrote letters to Santa. It was so fun to stand back and watch the concentration of a 5 year old as she tried her best to explain how good she has been and how much she wanted a "water baby". On the opposite side of the spectrum, it was really entertaining to watch a 3 year old carelessly draw and scribble on her letter with all the confidence in the world that Santa would come through for her with a stuffed unicorn. Candy canes and a fresh tree on top of the car ended a great afternoon.

A few weeks later we went to see Santa. We rode the Santa Train at Point Defiance in Tacoma. It is great, you hop on the train (ONE dollar per person!!!) and spend as much time with Santa as you need... sing carols...get rosy cheeks... and then head in to the cabin for hot cocoa and cookies to warm up afterwards.Christmas was white here... it was beautiful. We rarely see a white Christmas here in the Northwest, and it did make travel a bit of a challenge, but what a fabulous time we had celebrating with our family and friends. We filled the month with gingerbread houses, shopping and snow globes, kindergarten concerts, pine cones and sledding, snowmen, holiday music, Santa and mistletoe, tree decorating parties, candles, making and wrapping gifts, stockings, nutcrackers and cocoa in reindeer mugs.... and most importantly the Christmas story. We have been blessed in so many ways, but this year all of these little things have meant the most to me. If you have time in the next few days, write down a few memories that you made with your family or friends. Tuck your memories away in a Christmas box before you put all of your things away.... it will be fun to see if next year and for years to come.

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