3rd Annual Burns & McGowan Griswold Christmas Tree Road Trip

There are several other posts floating around in my head. But other things must be taken care of before I put fingers to keys. But there is no reason to wait for this post: it was too much fun, and too many wonderful photos that captured the fun, to wait for it to be chronological. 

Here's the gist: in 2009 Chris suggested cutting down their tree, something the McGowans have done before, and something us Burnses thought sounded quite romantic. We followed directions that took us into the middle of the Pisgah National Forest, over 6.5 miles of bumpy gravel road, to emerge onto Zeigler's Tree and Trout Farm. We passed a sign that says "Keep Going, Almost There!" that was placed at that exact spot where one begins to think "yeah, we should turn around." Click on their name, get the address, and try it if you haven't gotten your tree already. This is the family's livelihood, and they would appreciate your business!  To say I wish we lived out there may be an understatement. And there are no shortage of perfectly beautiful trees.

The road entering the farm.

Thomas & Kate carrying our measuring stick.

T liked to hide in the trees and say "bye bye!"

I told Cohen to smile like he liked me. This is the face he made. 

Looking back at the house & part of the farm. We like to take the scenic route to hunt for our trees.

This, of course, is the year we decide not to send out photo Christmas cards. The first year ever that everyone's looking at the camera.

The family lets you put your kids on their 4 wheelers and take photos....

...and ride in the back of the trailer with your freshly cut trees.

Pure excitement!

It may look like Emily is about to fall off the back of the trailer. I think she had just made the joke that it was it was obvious from our kids' squealing that we do not live in the country.

Twelve Days of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Old Man Murphy gave to me:

12 childrens' movies

11 loads of laundry

10 days of antibiotics

9 chapter books read

8 days indoors

7 trips to Target

6 days of fever

5 PRESCRIPTIONS!

4 dozen nebulizer treatments

3 sick kids

2 worn out parents

And a white Christmas not to be enjoyed.

It was not what we hoped, worse than what I feared, but there were still precious moments this holiday. To name a few: Kate leaning against the sliding door watching her neighborhood friends play in the snow Sunday, but not getting to play in it herself as she was recovering from walking pneumonia. Nancy pressing her snotty nose against her window to look at the snow, too sick to care about playing in it. Cuddling with my baby boy, too sick and tired to stay awake for even 30 minutes.

We were still able to enjoy Christmas Eve with Ryan's parents, and our Christmas Eve worship service with our church. My favorite gift was from my dad - a framed box containing the medals my grandfather wore on his uniform at our wedding, the last time he wore them. Watching my grandmother love on her seventh and youngest great-grandchild.

I had to let go of the nostalgia that Christmas time brings to my mind and instead embrace in a fresh way the reality that God sent His Son Jesus so that we can have One who can relate to us, who has been through what we have suffered and experienced, so that God can relate to us.

A few of my favorite snapshots:

Kate's elation over her American Girl doll. There were tears of joy.

Monie and Thomas.

Sick and tired boy. Worried mom.

New Christmas gifts made breathing treatments "fun".

Oh happy day! The Christmas tree is being kicked to the curb!

Snow, and trying to make a happy memory.

"Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what He suffered. And being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him."

Hebrews 5:9

Christmas, in Overtime

At this point, it is for pure documentational purposes I continue to blog about our holiday. After Christmas, the NC Burnses came down for a few days. Kate loves playing with her cousins, and we enjoy visiting and catching up. It becomes more fun and somehow less chaotic the older all the kids get, and they all get along so well. Lou Ann wears herself out trying to keep everyone fed, as we spend as much time as possible at their house cramming in as much visiting time as we can. Hopefully we can make it up to Boone soon, possibly for a 5K in July? We'll see! 

The Burns Family

Scott, holding Zach (18mo.), Carol and Paige (6), Memaw, McKenzie (7.5), 

Lou Ann holding Lauren (3), 

Ryan and Kate (5.5) Molly and Nancy (almost 2) and Tom.

Intermission: A Hair Cut

It had been June since I last had my hair cut, and so I called the most talented hair stylist I know and scheduled an appointment ASAP. Alice and Elizabeth came over to hang out too, so it was like Steel Magnolias style hanging out; we talked about food, shoes, old movies and other people. I thought I knew that my cousin Carole was good, but I got to learn for myself how great she is when I went to my aunt's and Carole cut my hair. I just told her I needed a trim and some layers, because the last time I had my hair cut, my regular girl cut most of my layers out. And for those of you with curly hair, you know you always need layers. So, layers and trim were her instructions, because I am neither adventurous or knowledgeable about hairstyles. 

It is the best haircut I have ever had. She cut the bangs perfectly so they still tuck behind my ear but fall to that perfectly unannoying spot beside my face if I happen to pull my hair up, she put shorter layers up top that curl up so neatly and left some long ones in the front, and then thinned it all out so even the long curls are still springy. But best of all: she blew it out straight, straight, straight. It took her an hour and 15 mintues to do it (almost the entire Home Alone video we were watching) but it was so worth the time.  

For those of you who met me post 2002, my hair used to be straight, just straight. And then a few months after Ryan and I got married, started to curl up in one spot. I had many curly hair clinics from my girlfriend Mary and finally figured out how to do it. And never straighten my hair because it takes so long. But it was so fun to have it back to how it was for 23 years of my life. Ryan saw the cut and called it my "old school hair". Thanks Carole! I'll be going to Richmond this spring for another trim!

Christmas, Round 5

I so badly wanted to put in a clip art photo of a little girl opening a Christmas present in that previous post to represent Kate, but it wouldn't let me download the image. Does anyone out there know how to do that?

I think the main reason I am recording the Christmas madness is so that come Christmas 2009 I can recall exactly who we spent time with and when and where (and what we gave others so I won't give them the same thing again). Christmas Day evening we went to my parents house for 'the big deal', which consists of dinner, gift opening one-by-one, dessert, more gift opening, and if there is time, games. This year we ate traditional Christmas food: ham, turkey, and casseroles of every sort. My mom makes these amazing sweet potato biscuits, mmmmmmmMM. That's right. They are so good. My cousin Carole and her husband Matt scored major points with a Hello Kitty tent and Light Brite (or Light Brighter, as Kate calls it) for the girls. I think I am going to shop more like her from now on - get for them what I would have wanted if I were still a kid. I did have a Light Brite and Hello Kitty tent when I was a kid, I think.

And we did end up having time for a game, which was loads of fun. We learned it from our friends Sean and Stacey Weiland at our small group Christmas party. Everyone writes down something about themselves that most of the others would not know, eg: "I once carried the Olympic Torch". Put the card in a hat, mix them up, and as one person reads them aloud and numbers them, the others guess who the card belongs to. My mom won with 8 out of 15 the first round, which was impressive. And I found out my dad was once in a middle school choir competition. I didn't know they had whistlers in choirs. I also learned it was Alice who touched the Olympic Torch while a student at Clemson, my brother broke his pinky toe on a diving board, Aunt Nancy played field hockey all 4 years in high school, when my grandmother Monie was a little girl she hid costume jewelry in a jar and buried in her yard in Landrum, and my cousin Carole, because of a dream that was so vividly real, only recently discovered that, in fact, Kevin Bacon is not a distant relative.  

Matt and Carole looking at old Christmas photos with Nancy Rose.

My mom got this awesome sweatshirt for Aunt Nancy. Her love for all things Austen rubbed off on me.

My sister-in-law Heather's first experience with our "Gift-opener-wears-the-Christmas-themed-headpiece" tradition.

Even Monie wears the antlers.

Kate, exhausted from 5 rounds of Christmas.

And Christmas is still not over....

Christmas, Round 4

Now we arrive on Christmas morning. And awful parent that I am, took absolutely no pictures of our oldest child opening anything of any sort. If you look through our photos you would honest to goodness think we only have one child. I feel (kinda) horrible. 

We do get to sleep in our own house and wake up and drink our own coffee and take photos and video of just our family and stay in our pjs until noon. But...we are on Christmas Round 4. 

Yeah, "eyabobs".

Yeah, iPod.

Yeah, puzzuw.

"Yook, Nancy do it too."

Christmas, Round 3

Christmas Eve evening we headed to Ryan's parents house to eat and exchange gifts.  We headed straight down from the country and showered at their house (I didn't want to eat dinner with ash in my hair). It was fun to enjoy watching Tom and Lou Ann enjoy watching the girls enjoy opening their presents. 

Kate is so happy.

This was Kate's reaction to her Fancy Nancy doll. She literally jumped for joy.

Nancy putting on all the dress up scarves from Mimi.

Christmas, Round 2

"Up to the Country"

Christmas Eve day we went up to Gowansville where my Aunt Gerrie and Uncle Charlie have a house. It used to be my Aunt's mother's house, and until they decide if they will renovate and live up there, we use the surrounding acreage to go 4-wheeling and make bonfires and roast stuff. We ask "Hey, are you going up to the country tomorrow?" We call it the country, despite the slow suburban sprawl creeping up Highway 14. 

Uncle Charlie and Aunt Gerrie have Alice and Elizabeth. Alice and her husband Brian live in Birmingham, and were up for a couple of weeks. My Aunt Nancy has Ben and Carole, and Carole and her husband Matt came down from Richmond for a few days. Carole and I are the same age and she is the closest thing I had to a sister growing up, and we still love hanging out. It was fun to catch up and play outside together. 

It was cold, but not windy, but rainy, and we stayed out in the rain anyway. It was kind of ridiculous, but so fun. We rode the 4 wheelers through the new paths Uncle Charlie had cut through the woods, and my cousin Carole and I like to go to the dove field and ride where it's more open so we can kick the speed up. There are bramble bushes that you have to look out for - I have scratched my face and hands going 20mph more than once. We also had shooting practice and roasted some hot dogs. We were outside for hours, just talking and playing, and it was so fun. Uncle Charlie doesn't need an excuse to start a fire, so he was more than happy to get a hot one going for us, complete with snowflakes made of ash.

My cousins Elizabeth and Alice. We were keeping warm by the fire.

Uncle C enjoying his dog on a fork. We ran out of buns.

Uncle Charlie telling Carole where he cut the new trails. 

The Fam, though not everyone. Missing is Ben and Andrea and their kids Emily, Jake and Lizzie and Monie, Uncle Ray and Aunt Heather weren't able to make it up. This pic is funny b/c I have the camera propped on twigs on the bannister of the deck. Elizabeth and I had 10 seconds to press the button and run off the deck, around the ivy bed and get to our places. Her picture is a bazillion times better than mine, but it was so funny.

Christmas, Round 1

We spent Christmas Eve Eve with my parents and brother and sister-in-law. Next year there will be 3 babies at Christmas! Not us...Heather and Ray! So excited about having a niece or nepher in town. My Aunt Nancy and grandmother (We call her Monie. That's another post for another day.) also joined us for the festivities.

This was actually my brother's and my joint birthday celebration on the 7th. But I think it's the only photo of the 4 of us from the season!

Kate opening her digital camera from Mo and Poppa.

Nancy showing Mo and Aunt Nancy her "beer".

Santa Claus has Come to Town

Every year I look forward to taking the girls to see Santa. I wish our scanner worked, so I could subject the general public to 5 years of photos with the Jolly Man, but it isn't compatible with our Mac, so you'll have to trust me: every year is priceless.

It can take me 5 minutes to decide what kind of peanut butter to get at the store (the cheapest, the giant tub that will last for 4 weeks, or the no high fructose corn syrup non-comodegenic kind?) but I do not hesitate a second to lay down $25 for only 4 pictures of my kids with this stranger-man we tell them is Santa. Kate only had one year that was horrible, and that was the year she was the same age that Nancy is now. I knew going into it that Nan would probably wail, and she did, but we got the absolute funniest picture ever. Kate is prim and proper and waiting patiently with a smile on her face (why can't she do that when I take pictures?) and you can see Ryan's arms holding Nancy close to Santa on the other side, making what we call her "square face". She goes red and square, and it's so funny. But remember, my scanner doesn't work. So just do your best to picture it in your head. 

We did get some action shots of Kate with Santa. I think besides Nancy and Clara and Carson and Celia, she thinks Santa is her BFF.

"...and peace on earth, and no more hunger, and a Barbie Diamond Castle."

They really are BFF, for like, 3 minutes each year.

"Hey Nan. What did Santa give you?"

"TANDY!!"

Almost Everything

More dialogue with the 5 year old...Kate and I were going through the Jesse Tree advent, making up for a few missed days. We were talking about angels, and how God sent the angels to the shepherds to tell them about Jesus' birth. 

Kate: "How come God just didn't come down and do it? Why did He send the angels?"

Me: ("They couldn't handle God's glory", "We aren't entitled to know why", or "just because" were the only answers I could think of!) so instead I say: "Kate, I don't know."

Kate: "Well, you almost know everything."

Thanks for giving me a little bit of credit, kid.