Christmas Tree Weekend, 2012

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!