Skip to main content

Christmas Tree Weekend, 2012

By
For our family, finding the perfect Christmas tree is usually combined with Thanksgiving dinner.  However, because we were on the cruise this year over Thanksgiving, we were forced to WAIT!  That's right--we gave up seven days of a decorated house and all-around merriment for the cruise, but I can't deny that it wasn't totally worth it :-)

So, Ethan promised to come home the following weekend.  It wasn't hard to convince him, considering he has missed out on Kennedy family festivities for the past two years.  He arrived home at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon, and we headed out 20 minutes later.

I remember when the kids were much younger (as was I), and we would go hunting for the perfect tree.  For some reason, my memories are filled with exhaustion.  It felt like we would have walked five miles by the end of it all.  Kids were frozen, tired and cranky (as was I).  Just tying the tree to the car would be a monumental task.  Then, when we got home, we would discover that our tree wasn't nearly as perfect as it had looked out in the field, often looking more like a Christmas bush.

Not any more.  In fact, tree hunting has become a joy, and an art!  I attribute this to one thing:  grown-up kids.

Man, I love having grown-up kids.  While John bemoans the fact that our kids aren't little anymore, and he misses their cuteness and their evenings full of wrestling, I rejoice in the fact that our kids are bigger and older.  Well, maybe not bigger, seeing as I'm the second shortest person in the family, but you know what I mean.  They can fend for themselves now, and if they walk out of the house without a coat, it's not my problem!  Too, they hold fascinating conversations.  I like grown-up kids.

Tree hunting has become, as John puts it, one massive photo-op.  We all get dressed up for the occasion, picking whatever Christmas finery we can find in our closets (although this year, we picked up the girls straight from school, so the finery waited until the next day).  The Santa hats are found, one of the dogs becomes "the chosen one" for the day, and we are off.

Arriving at the farm
I'm so happy Ethan is home again!
The sign at the front of the farm said "NO RIDERS ON CARTS".
Obviously, they knew about scoundrels like Glo.

While the rest of us are taking pictures, John is a lone man, hunting for the perfect tree.

You can see how happy Johannah is that she has to hold the tree for Ethan to cut.

When Ethan discovered that the saw blade was completely DULL, John stepped in with the man guns.
FOUND!
We women couldn't help but notice that John has the ugliest Santa hat EVER!
Glo thought she could help him a bit with some decoration.  He just ended up looking like Robin Hood :-)
There were these giant animals hole.  I'm not sure what Glo was hoping Chief would do.  Pull out a groundhog?

The corny "wreath" picture that I love so much

Even Chief got in the "wreath" spirit.
John said that Glo is just Mark in girl form--always hamming it up for the picture.
Poor Chief--if his other dog friends could see him now...
 We came home, John set up the tree and got it watered, and we headed back out for dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  The next day, we were up bright and early, running errands and going to rehearsal (Johannah).  After lunch, it was time for the annual Kennedy Christmas photos.

Glo was first out, ready to mug for the camera.
This was the first photo we took.  In case you can't tell by John's face, he and Ethan had just had a big ol' argument.
Looking at ourselves, we all decided that John needed to change his pants to match the rest of us for the picture.
By the time he came back out, he was good to go!
In fact, he apologized.  He's a good man, that John.

See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil
I think this was John's idea.  Very, very cute.  In fact, it was hard for us not to bust out laughing while taking this.
Does this girl EVER take a bad picture???

We haven't taken one of these "height" pictures in forever, or at least since Ethan's been gone.  Nice face, Glo!
More proof that I'm "short"
At least she can JOKE about it!
Glo--she loves to get her hands on the camera.

Now THIS is impressive!

And even better!





Comments

  1. Sarah MoranDecember 2, 2012 at 10:11 AM

    Every single picture made me smile, especially the last one where John is wearing a great Santa hat.

    ReplyDelete
  2. John KennedyDecember 13, 2012 at 5:15 PM

    What a great photojournal of a great day! Merry Christmas to you Aris!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Like Dominos....

By
It all began with glare.  Simple, obnoxious, I-can't-stand-it-anymore glare. Our 60" rear projection TV in the family room was basically unviewable except after 10 o'clock at night.  The glare from the windows was making it impossible to see anything during my 10 minute lunch break each day, and something had to change. Too, the TV didn't fit in the entertainment center from Germany.  John, wanting bigger and better, hadn't considered that the space is only 40" wide.  For the past five years, I have been nagged by 6" of overhang on both sides of the TV stand. I went to Lowe's to price blinds.  $1,043 for five blinds, and that was at 20% off. I figured a new TV would be cheaper than that.  I was right, even with the state-of-the-art receiver and new HDMI cables that sly salesman told us we needed to have. But where to put the old TV?  It just needed a quiet, dark place to retire. Glo's bedroom.  Her TV was a relic from the paleoneoneand...
3 comments
Read more

The Quest for Birkenstocks

By
One of the main reasons I go to Germany every couple of years is to restock my supply of Birkenstocks.  I started buying them when I lived there, and I basically can't live without them now.  It just about kills me when a pair runs its course and needs to be thrown away.  I think in my lifetime, I've thrown away only three pairs.  One that never was quite right (the straps were plastic and would cut into my skin after a long day), one pair that I wore gardening one too many times (the brown dirt stains wouldn't come out of the white leather), and the pair that I was wearing when I broke my ankle (they were an unfortunate casualty of broken ankle PTSD because those purple and blue paisleys go down as one of my favorite pairs of all time).  I only threw out the garden ones a couple of days before I left for Germany, because I knew I would be getting a new pair. The only store where I have ever bought my Birkenstocks is Hoffmann's in Speicher.  (Well okay, t...
2 comments
Read more

Thinking Beyond Ourselves

By
In our church, most adults hold a “calling”.  What this really means is they have a job, or a specific way to serve within the local congregation.  We believe that this calling is inspired from God—it’s a specific way that he wants us to serve, so that we can either learn and grow ourselves, or so that we can help someone else. I have had more callings in the church than I can count, and with few exceptions, I have loved every one of them.  I have come to love people (adults, teens and kids) who I might never have met.  I have learned much--from how to organize a Christmas music program, to how to make a Sunday School lesson meaningful to apathetic teenagers.  I have served as president of the children’s organization, and I have been the leader of 30 young, single adults. With every calling comes a lot of work.  Of course, the amount of work one puts into a calling is up to an individual.  I choose to put everything into a calling.  I give up ho...
3 comments
Read more