Bad Cats and Christmas Trees

I didn't expect the Christmas trees to be perfect this year. I know better. 4 kids, 2 cats and a rambunctious dog can do serious harm to a Christmas tree.

I must admit, I didn't expect it to be this bad.

The tree in the girls room is always missing it's ornaments. The girls take them off and do something with them - what that is, I don't know.

The tree in the family room is missing most of the bottom ornaments. The cats run around and chase each other under the tree. They knock the ornaments off, and then bat them around the basement. I've even caught Beano tossing glass ornaments in the air.

BUT - the worst is the pink tree in the living room. I have come home to find it laying on it's side more times than I care to admit. Half of the branches have come out and are scattered about the room. I have no idea where most of the ornaments are (they are certainly not on the tree). AND, that bad Beano has managed to tangle the lights in such a way that we may never get them untangled.

The joys of having a large family and a crazy household.

I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I Heart Faces

I thought I'd enter this picture into the I Heart Faces weekly photography challenge. Ambercita just loves having her picture taken!!! And I just love this picture!

Random Pictures

Nothing exciting to report today. I just finally caught a half-way decent shot of Owen, and thought I should post it (because people were starting to wonder if he had run away or something). Anyway, here it is.

And, I'm posting this picture of Ginger for no good reason at all, other than that I like it.

Cutting Down the Christmas Tree

I reluctantly agreed to try something new this year. Rather than purchasing our tree at a shop on the side of the road, I agreed to go to a "cut your own" tree farm. Since North Carolina is one of the top producers of Christmas trees in the country, and since Maddie is studying our beautiful State in school this year, I thought it might be a learning experience for all of us.

One thing that I learned very quickly is that there are no Christmas tree farms in Raleigh. You actually have to drive FAR to get one.

I also learned, unfortunately, that they don't grow Christmas trees at the beach. (Okay, maybe I already knew that part. I'm just dreaming of the beach this week).

In any case, the drive was about 3 1/2 hours. Maddie is practically an encyclopedia of facts about North Carolina (and a number of other things), so that helped pass some of the time. The kids really enjoy singing Christmas carols, and that helped pass some more time. But, toward the end of the drive to the farm, I got desperate. I made up a game where the kids could count the number of cars with trees on the top that we passed along the way.

Maddie immediately said (in her perfect dead-pan voice) "Why don't we count the number of tree stores that we passed on our way here."

That child cracks me up. It may not be so funny when she is a teen, but I am really getting a kick out of it now.

Anyway.....

We finally got to the farm, and it was exactly as I imagined (sort of). Once again, I find myself on an excursion to someone else's back yard (remember the Gourd Farm??). It's bizarre. Just turn into someone's driveway and find an entire tourist attraction.

The kids were very excited to get out of the car and run around.

CoCo got bored pretty fast.

Maddie was the official "measure-er." She refused to settle for a short tree!

After much debate, we picked the perfect tree.

It ended up being a LONG day, but I think everyone had fun.

But, next year, I'm going to the place across the street with the 25 foot tall inflatable Santa.