2018 Ornament Exchange

Thank you Amy, Danice, and Becky for the wonderful ornaments! I can't wait to put them on our Christmas tree!!

I forget to get a picture of the ornaments I sent. They were small handmade Santas I got on Etsy, and I included a Santa hang-tag as another ornament or package decoration.

Since Thanksgiving was "early" this year we have not yet gone to cut a tree. We will probably be going next week out to the tree farm, I can't wait!

Giveaway Win from Homespun Hannah

I won Danice's Homespun Holidays Giveaway 2017!

Visit her blog Homespun Hannah.

The goodies arrived by mail yesterday. Each item wrapped carefully in the box. It was so much fun opening everything, like Christmas. :)

The penguin she made is just too cute. I love his green satchel. The luminary is a punched tin. I hope you can see the tree shape, I tried to get it in the photo.



She made this pretty quilted table topper. She also sent a lovely Christmas card along with some potpourri.



The winter ornament is up on my bedroom tree.



One more picture of the penguin and tin. :)



Thank you Danice for this awesome giveaway, I was very excited to win and have some things you've made!

Randomness

The end of November and now into December has been a roller coaster around here.

As you know, we got our tree right after Thanksgiving. We got it up and in the living room right away. It took a while to get the lights on because one of the strands we bought last year was missing bulbs and some of the line didn't even work. We don't seem to have enough ornaments for the tree this year, but hopefully next year we'll have our stuff from Colorado out here. I do miss our Christmas ornaments and decorations!



Our daughter likes to bring in chickens to visit us inside. This is Rose. She is a white leghorn and lays big white eggs. She seems to be the most friendly of the flock.



We let the ducks wander around the property. They always stay together, unlike the chickens! They were drinking from this pool behind the house until Zorg came along to get a drink too. Navarre the cat is up in the window spying on all of us.



Sadie Mae likes jumping on and laying on the picnic tables. The power was out and we were all hanging out down at the fire pit with a fire to keep warm. It was warmer outside than inside. We couldn't get our propane fireplace to work, nor the generator! Thankfully the power was restored before nightfall.



We had some pre-cooked hot dogs in the freezer that we brought out to "cook" over the fire. I think hot dogs are gross, but I was hungry and we couldn't afford to drive into the city to eat at a restaurant at the time.



Navarre fell asleep sitting next to me while he was waiting for my breakfast to be done. His nose is pressed against my arm! He loves to get bites of meat or lick the runny yolk from my plate.



The power went out yet again (third time this season and we haven't even gotten into winter yet!) Our daughter had a strand of battery powered lights we used to play a game in the dark. Then we all went to bed. The power came back on at about 3:00 a.m., but it was not a freezing cold day so it wasn't too bad. At least it was during a time when we'd be mostly sleeping.



I was looking all over for Navarre, he LOVES to sleep. He sleeps more than any cat we've ever had and he sleeps like a log. Found him sleeping in my little wagon and of course we all thought how cute that was.

Tree Farm Visit

I've always wished we could get our Christmas tree from a tree farm instead of a Big Box store.

Shortly after we moved to West Virginia, I looked up tree farms in our area and found a couple.

The closest one (about a 40 min drive) is Yagel Poor Farm. It is really tucked back into the hills in a beautiful area.

There are 4 lots of trees and I wasn't sure how we'd ever choose just one!

There are many types of trees growing and I decided we should pick something totally different from our usual Noble Fir choice.



The kids loved wandering through the trees looking and touching the needles. Most of the trees are so soft.



Justin liked this shorter round tree.



We wandered through lot #3 until we found our tree.





We picked out this beauty! It is very soft and just the size we were looking for. It is an Eastern White Pine.



The kids posed with our tree before cutting it down.



Daddy sawed and the kids helped hold it. The farm lent us a hand saw. Next year we will for sure bring our own electric saw!! It was a challenge hand cutting so close to the ground, which is what the farm asks you to do. The trees grow on hillsides and he was trying to saw upwards. I stood behind him so he could use my foot for leverage. The ground is soft and his feet would just slide through the dirt as he tried to push up to saw. We will certainly be better prepared next year!



Daddy and Justin carried it back to our car.





This is one of the other lots we didn't look through. But I loved this view! I have this picture as my wallpaper now. :)



This is a really nice tree farm, we loved coming out! We were each given candy canes and chatted with the owners, who are very nice!

The kids posed by this pretty decorated tree by the check out stand.



This lot is near the entrance. I loved the one decorated tree. :D



It was a fun experience!