Christmas Tree Shopping The Old-Fashioned Way

Today we ventured out into the Black Hills National Forest in search of the perfect Christmas tree.


After four hours of driving slow to see what we could see from the roads and trudging through snow which was deeper than I'd anticipated, we settled on a slender Spruce in the 8-foot range. The shape is really nice, and once we string the lights and hang the ornaments it will be gorgeous. I love the big spaces between the layers of branches, which allows our treasured ornaments that we've collected from all our trips to dangle and be showcased.

I think we ended up in the area of our region that got 4-plus feet of snow in the recent blizzard. Unlike the snow we got at our house, most of the snow we saw today had not melted! What a workout.



By the end of the day, Mikel was out running around in the snow while we sat in the car and watched. He somehow crossed a creek and motioned for me to bring over the saw, which I had to throw across the water. After he cut our tree, he tossed it over the creek to me, but I was too busy taking a photo to catch it (not that I could have anyway). The tree kind of bounced back into the creek and, being the good wife, I fished it out before it could sail downstream.




We could have gotten a much fuller pre-cut tree from some storefront. But it's all about the adventure and memories being created, isn't it? What I don't understand is why, throughout 1.2 million BH National Forest acres, was it so hard to find a tree we liked? Maybe if we'd have gone deep into the forest we'd have found more choices. But with two preschool kids and a dog — as well as the hard-to-walk-in snow and it being a lot colder out than I thought it would be today — we stayed pretty close to the vehicle. From what we could tell, though, it seemed like all the much fuller trees were way taller with a huge bottom spread. Our $10 permit allowed us to cut a tree up to 20-feet tall. Problem is, our house just isn't that big!

Anyway, here we are! We'll have to start decorating it tomorrow, though we have an incredibly busy day and I'm sure we will not finish.



For tonight we just set the tree up in water and realized we'll probably have to trim the top just a bit.


Then we all watched "A Christmas Story," which the kids seemed to enjoy. Since I hadn't seen it in a year myself I forgot there were a few cuss words and the scene where the little boy eats his food off the plate like a little piggie (I hope mine don't try to mimic this.) and the scene where the department store Santa pushes the kid down the slide by tapping his big boot on the kid's head and the scenes where the mean bully kids are so mean. Of course we didn't stop the movie. I tried to emphasize that this was just a movie and he was just a pretend Santa.

Young Scribes

The children are writing! Well, it's mostly Anna. But Alexander can write his name.

It seems like Anna’s handwriting has exploded practically overnight.

Earlier this year she was starting to write her name but it wasn’t until the past few weeks that I noticed she could do so much more. Several weeks ago she wrote “Dad,” so I promptly made sure she learned how to also write “Mom.”

Then, this past weekend we were doing lessons before dinner and she blew my socks off! Look at all this. At first I would write the word for her then she would duplicate it. Then she started to write some words on her own with me just verbally telling her the letters.

Alexander can also write his name like a little pro. He wrote a better small “e” even before Anna did. I think that’s a tricky letter to get. However, at the moment his small “x” comes out looking more like a “t”.

Alexander’s is the blue page with his name written twice. All the rest of these pages were made by Anna. (In case you’re wondering, Anna turned 4 in late August and Alexander turned 3 in early July.)

For Now

I've got things to say but no time to say them. So, to get us through, here are some photos of the kids downstairs this afternoon. They were so engrossed in an Elmo movie they didn't even know I was snapping photos. Look at how patient Shrevie is waiting for them to toss him a scrap of their snack. Or to drop something.



What do you think? They kind of look alike, don't they? Maybe it's the red eyes.

Walking The Dog

With snow remaining on the ground, these photos feel a bit outdated. But here we are taking doggie for a walk on Halloween morning.

Doesn't Alexander look like such a cool little dude with his sunglasses?

My Dog Chews Gum

That's pretty much it.

The little rascal loves to find chewed-up, spit-out gum off the ground and chew, chew, chew. It's actually kind of funny.

And, as he always does when he has something in his mouth he knows he's not supposed to have, he looks at me as if to get my attention. Then he diverts his eyes and proceeds to play this little game in which I have to pry open his jaws and stick my hand in his mouth and try to get the gum or toy or whatever it may be.

Today, he sniffed out the same piece of gum in the pile of snow near our home that I'd snatched out of his mouth the other day. I guess I should have thrown it in the garbage can. This time I didn't get the chance because he ended up swallowing it.

Snow Play

Today has been considerably warmer with virtually no wind, so after breakfast we ventured out for some quality snow play.

I pulled the kids on the sled for a bit, but it was like feast or famine — either too shallow or too deep. As you can see in the video here, if the posting works, snow was knee-deep in places. It was a good workout!

So, after a while I told the kids we'd just get the sand toys and let them shovel snow. They tried snow angels but are sorely lacking in this skill area.

And I couldn't not post pooch pics, of Shreve licking the packed-in snow and chilling with one paw turned under. Oh, and here's one of the many deer trekking through our backyard this morning.

Blizzard Update

The way I'm talking about blizzards like an old salty dog you might never guess I'm from the Deep South. Sounds like we were all over the Weather Channel today with our bad blizzard. Schools are even closed again tomorrow (which, still, I maintain, I'm a little surprised about ... but what do I know about blizzards!).

I ended up not taking the children out today. It was just too cold with that nasty wind (78 mph once recorded downtown, according to news reports). I ventured out in our front yard with Shreve while the children were napping and while it was somewhat calm (maybe, oh, only 35 mph winds).

Here's a video and some pics, including our traditional blizzard tent downstairs in the playroom. You can see for yourself in some places sprigs of dead grass are visible while inches away there are feet and feet of snowdrifts. I forgot to take the yard stick!

P.S. I'm posting these tonight without the video. I've been waiting for well over an hour for this thing to process. What's up with posting videos on blogger in the evening? I'll try to add the clip in the morning (Friday) when the system will hopefully be less busy.

November Blizzard

We're in another blizzard.

Doesn't seem quite as bad to me as our blizzard back in May, but pretty much everything in the region is shut down nonetheless.

It's funny that we seem to have big snowdrifts in the same places as the blizzard six months ago — notably against the back of our house and in the middle of the little private gravel road that leads from our driveway to the main road! Mikel had to put it into 4WD and special gear just to get onto the road. I haven't heard from him so I assume he made it in to work OK.

Of course, the children's school is closed so they're home with me. We're watching Little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in front of the fire. We'll consider going out later, though the blizzard warning is on until 5 p.m.

It started blizzarding last night about 7 p.m., and Mikel and I even got to watch a full movie (Alpha Dog) before the electricity went out. Thankfully, it was out for only a short while and everything was back up and running by bedtime.

Considering the blizzard has been going on for some 15 hours now, you'd think there'd be massive amounts of snow. But that's what blizzards are, I guess — as much blowing around of what snow there is to the point of no visibility, as there is the dumping of new snow. I read on the newspaper's Web site that various towns all around us are getting anywhere from 35 inches to 7 inches! With us in "The Hills", sometimes it just depends on which elevation you're in.

Anyway, enjoy the a.m. photos and video clip taken from our garage. Maybe I'll get more later, depending on what we do today. (I should probably get out of my PJs!)

Oh, BTW, we're very thankful that so far no one else has come down with pink eye! Alexander's looks almost cleared up but of course he has to keep taking his meds for another week or so.