Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra!

Lots of pictures to show you all! Our weekend was fun as usual but busy, as usual! Friday night we went to Jere and Cathy's house for Justin's goodbye Christmas party. He accepted a government job in California and moved back to San Diego this past Sunday. The Hoffmasters threw him a very nice goodbye party and we saw lots of friends and ate lots of good food! I also found out that one of my best friends got engaged!!! Congratulations Megan and Matt!!!!

Saturday morning Michael got up at 4am to go hunting with his Dad and Joni and I left around 7:30 to go to work at the shop. My Dad watched Bode (once again) and we worked until about noonish..... when we got home, Michael and I got bundled up and my parents showed up around 2 and we were off to get our tree!!!!!

For the past few years we have been going to Elizabeth Farms in Brickerville, Pa. It's actually only about 10 minutes from our new house in Lititz, so it was perfect! You get taken out to their tree farm on a wagon pulled by beautiful draft horses and you can pick between different kinds of trees. They provide saws and you cut your own tree down. Last year when Michael and I went it was snowing and we were hoping for that this year.... sure enough, once we got off the 'ride' to get our tree, it started to flurry- it was the best!

Here are our draft horses
Michael cutting down the tree- our tree was massive! I think we were so excited to have more space in our house for a bigger tree this year, we went a little Griswold! The best part about it was we saw our tree within 10 minutes, as did my parents!

Mom and Dad working on their tree!

Bode was so good!! His nose was so cold, but he kept singing and yelling and he was definitely the entertainment on the ride back. A family sat down with 5 girls and he flirted the whole time!!
Here is the sled behind us


I loved the black horses

Saturday we got home and stuck our tree in a bucket overnight.... although the weather was crap, we ventured out to Toys R Us to finish our Christmas shopping and I'm happy to report that except for one person we are DONE!!! I think that's the earliest I have ever been completely done! We had fun at Toys R Us.... trying to get used to where all the stuff is- I think we will have plenty more practice going there as Bode gets older. We hung out at home Saturday night and it was so nice- once Bode went to bed, Michael and I relaxed with some wine and enjoyed our house- it felt like for the first time!

Sunday we slept in!! I was up at 7:30 and Bode woke up around 8am... I went running with Koa despite the freezing temperatures and major gusting wind, we had a good run... I'm a little wind-burnt today, but we survived! I took Bode to Costco and the grocery while Michael worked on our bathroom... we are almost all done, but I thought I would show everyone the before/after

Here was our sink before.....



Here is our sink after- we have to get a new mirror and replace lighting in the bathroom still

This was the bathroom with the tile floor ripped out


And here is the bathroom almost done..... the hysterical thing is we matched two green shades with our bamboo print shower curtain.... and the one wall with the window is almost same exact color we had it! We picked out a darker color for the big wall where our hamper is.... the walls just need a second coat of paint and we need to pick up a new toilet (one that is white hahaha)

"Clark it looks a little big.... it's not big hunny, it's just full"
"Dad that thing wouldn't fit in our yard.... it's not going in our yard Russ, it's going in our living room"

Yep, we did it Griswold style this year... we moved furniture around to fit our tree and the good news is we love the new look and are going to leave it that way after Christmas- it makes our living room look so much bigger.... bad news is our tree is so massive, it takes up most of our space hahaha

It's a beautiful tree though and we ran out of lights.... we had enough lights last year for a whole tree and this year they only covered half (yikes). My mission is to get more lights today so we can light it tonight and decorate

This tree smells soooo good- no candle can match that smell, there's nothing like it!

Bode hasn't shown an interest in the tree so far really.... he was upset while we were putting it up because we wouldn't let him get near the living room (there were needles everywhere and sap, etc.) now that it's up, he just stares at it!


Our big boy was so pooped after running errands with me yesterday- he was a drool monster, so I'm sure this week will bring with it more teeth and runny nostrils! Oh what fun