On the Hunt for a Christmas Tree... & Other Christmas Decorations

We had wanted to go get our Christmas tree after the kiddos were done with their meets on Saturday because it was such a gorgeous day, but the older three were suppose to head back out to a youth group Christmas party at 5:00, so we decided that we didn't have time and would have to wait until Sunday after church instead.  Thankfully Sunday was suppose to be another sunny day, but again, we had a Deacon's christmas party later that evening, so we had a limited amount of time.  We would have loved to drive up the Henslers Tree Farm because they have nicer trees and you get to take the tractors back to the field and get the whole experience, but due to the time constraint, we knew we would have to stick closer to home so we drove 30 minutes to go back to Potters Tree Farm where we've gone two of the past three years.  The trees are much smaller there, and it is obvious that they paint their trees to make them look greener, but we would just have to make it work if we wanted to get a tree.

The field that we were directed to didn't have very many trees to choose from.  Surely that means it would be much easier to decide, right?

We found several that were nicely shaped right away, but they were all just so short.  

This was Laynie's first choice and she said that she was just going to keep standing there until we cut the tree down.  As you can see, it's not much taller than she is.  We all just kept walking and eventually she gave up and ran over to join us.  LOL

Where did the top half of this tree go?

Keep searching gang... we will eventually find something.

And then Melayna spotted her next tree.  We called this one "fatty" because it was so round...and still not very tall!!

After taking a few silly pictures in front of the tree, the rest of the family moved on to look for another option but Melayna decided to stand by it again 'just in case we changed our minds'.

"Please, can we take him home?"

Okay, so maybe this is the one!  At least it's taller.

No going back.  The tree belongs to us now!

Can we please get one family picture?  And if we're all staring directly into the sun and squinting and doing weird and unknown things with our faces, that would be the most perfect picture ever!!  LOL

And now a selfie so that Aaron could be included in our picture.

I really think Aaron found this whole experience quite funny as we ran from tree to tree and quarreled over who had found the best one and then found the silliest reasons not to like anyone else's choice...and Marissa never did approve of any of them so that made it funnier.

We made memories together though and in the end, that's what it's all about anyway.

Now let's load this tree up and get it back to the car.

Good bye Potter Tree Farm.

Maybe next year?

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That was four days ago and the tree is now inside the house and Noel and I put the lights on it but we have had to wait to decorate it because there hasn't been a night when all four of the kids are home and have enough time to do it all together.  

At least the rest of the house is festive and bright.

Prom 2022

 The girls went to prom last weekend.

Morgan was able to go simply because she's a junior, but then Marissa was able to go because there was a group of swimmers going together and they had asked Marissa and Ariel, who are both sophomores, to be part of their group, so they were also able to purchase tickets and go together.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we were able to find two beautiful dresses at the area "second hand shop" a month ago and then we asked my niece to come over and help do their make-up.  (I also used my youtube watching skills to find a few hair styles that I could possibly do for them.)

I didn't get any pictures of Marissa getting make-up finished, because I was working on Morgan's hair at that point.  But many, many thanks to Brogan because she did a wonderful job!

I did these knotted braids for Morgan and then after I took this picture, she found some pretty diamond hair clips that we added to the sides.

Then Marissa curled her own hair and I just tied her into a simple knot.  After I took this picture, I also made the knot larger and added a few clips to hold it all in place.

I was pretty proud of myself as the girls got a couple of compliments on their hair and I was so happy that they were able to look good without a huge price tag.  (Yay for small victories!)

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Originally they had planned to get hair and make-up done and then drive up to their friend's house to get dressed.  Marissa wanted to take pictures with us though and didn't want us to spend the time and money also driving to the lake house, so the two girls got dressed to take pictures with us, and then they changed back into their sweats and drove up to the lake where they dressed again and took pictures together as a group.  One of the girls had her parents cook an amazing pasta dinner and then they finally made it over to the prom about 45 minutes late.  No one really cared because half the fun is getting ready, right?

Just look at these beautiful girls!

Nolan took the picture of us above but then he wanted to be in one of the pictures so he handed the camera off to Melayna.  We tried to get Melayna in the pictures too but she was still in her track uniform so she declined.  (Wow!  'Seeing Nolan standing with us like that just shows how much he has grown taller this year)

These two have the sweetest relationship and he wanted to hug her before she left.

And then they were off.  They had a great time at Rachel's house taking pictures together and eating dinner.  Rachel's sister donated her jeep for them to all ride together and then they really did enjoy the prom dancing and talking with so many friends.  Around 11:00 I received a text from Morgan letting me know that they were leaving the prom but they were going to run to a gas station to get slushies.  They ended up being home just right around midnight with smiles on their faces and blisters on their feet.

Thankfully they gave us copies of the rest of their pictures the next day.

This one was taken while they waited for Marianna to arrive:

And then the rest were taken out by the lake:

Gotta love swimmers who love to show off their muscles.

We can call this one #swimmershoulders.  LOL

'Have a great time girls!!

(In order from left to right: Marianna, Morgan, Rachel, Marissa, Ariel)

And then these pictures were from the prom or after in the parking lot:

Congrats to Sarah (Morgan's best swimming friend) for being name the Prom Queen 2022.

And now for slushies...