Friday, December 19, 2008

Hot Cocoa and Christmas Trees

We have been drinking so much hot cocoa I have considered buying a Costco pack, which is a 70 count box. It is very cold out. I know this is coming from someone who has lived in rather mild-weathered western Washington for most her life, and I've never been in Minnesota or Michigan or wherever you snow-people live, and I admit I am sometimes a cold wuss. But right now I'm watching the news and they're talking about 2-12" of snow in Tacoma and 50-70 mph winds. I get to complain a teensy bit. For where we live this is pretty bad weather, and worse is that most folks don't know how to deal with it.

So we went out and got some groceries so we're well-stocked before the storm this weekend, luckily we're in a good area and it's unlikely we'd lose power. We plan on making a bunch of cookies this weekend! And staying in and watching movies, and enjoying our pretty Christmas tree.

We'd gone to the Honeytree Farm and cut down our own tree, which was a fun experience because we had to find a tree that would fit inside a Mini Cooper. There was a bunch of running back and forth with a tape measurer. We found a little Noble fir cramped in a corner by a big pine tree that had stunted its growth. The tree farmers had a good laugh as we bundled it in black trash bags and stuck it in the back of the Mini, with my seat slid as close to the dashboard as possible. My biggest requirement for a U-Cut Christmas tree farm is free hot chocolate for after your hunt.

This is most likely because in my family we went to this U-Cut farm often after the sun had set, making cutting trees a very cold, flashlight-driven affair. After we had chosen our tree and cut it down, which we often found bird nests in later on, we would go inside where there was a wood stove, free hot chocolate, and miniature candy canes. It's tough to break that sort of habit.

Given my penchant for birds, and that I was married in a bird-themed wedding, it's only appropriate that we have a bird-themed tree. This isn't a new thing, we've been hanging our tree with birds since before we were engaged. It mostly started because Andy didn't have a lot of ornaments so I folded a flock of origami cranes to perch on the branches. From there things just sort of took off. Pun intended.

And when I complained that our tree had only three lonesome ball ornaments, my buddies came through. Turtle, from work, gave us so many we should get a larger tree next year. Tam sent me a beautiful painted crane ornament, and cheerful new shiny shiny shiny bulbs.

It's a good thing we planned on getting a small tree this year, too. Partially it was because we wanted to be able to fit it inside the Mini, but also this is our first year with a Christmas tree and a cat. A cat who tends to get into things. So we're able to put this little tree on top of our big drafting table and have finally gotten it to a point where Grunty can't jump up to make friends. He kept trying to climb it while Andy was putting the lights on it. And when he couldn't climb it, he tried to eat it.

1 comment:

Tam said...

Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiird!!! The tree looks lov-erly! ^____________^

I am really glad they arrived in one piece. I know its hard to keep glass ornaments safe when you have pets and all but they look so much better than the shatter proof ones.

Yay treee! Oh and I heard you had erected a blanket fort. Did you name it?