The Hunt for the Perfect Tree

 December 17th is the latest we have ever gone Christmas tree hunting. But between the never ending rain and other commitments that was our first available weekend.
The weather was chilly with a bit of wet snow falling.
It was a bit weird to having to dodge the mud puddles while walking through the snow.

We walked up and down the rows while Tucker explored every inch of the farm.

Finally we had it narrowed down to two trees.

This one was deemed 'the perfect tree'.

 

Can you see the mud caked into the soles of CJ's boots?

Tucker had to have a 'tubbie' when we got home. He had mud packed in between his toes and pretty much every where else.

Steve worked on the lights and CJ placed the tree skirt.

Then we all hung the ornaments.

England May Have Stonehenge...

Central Ohio has a field of concrete corn.
It's called art.

CJ and Richard pose with the corn.

Richard is a coworker of Steve's, based somewhere near London. He has been to our house a number of times and Steve has met & toured London with Richard and his family. Richard came to dinner Friday night and then we spent Saturday searching out the perfect Christmas gifts for his family. Richard did the searching, we just helped him spend his money! On the way back from Abercrombie we stopped to show Richard the cornfield.
Unlike Stonehenge we know exactly what our corn field is used for...making tourist shake their heads in disbelief.

Homemade Breakfast

It all started with the granola. Many of you have tasted it and declared it 'the best granola ever'. I think so to but it is nice to hear it from others.
Then, I came to be the owner of a big tub of cherries. So I made cherry butter. Don't know if it really classifies as a butter but it certainly isn't jelly or jam. What it is is yummy.
Then I ran across a recipe for crock pot yogurt and decided to give it a try. The first batch was yummy although a little thin. The second batch I picked up organic milk and didn't notice that it was ultra-pasteurized, it was okay but not quite right. For the third batch I strained off the whey. After the straining I had on jar of whey and one jar of yogurt. The yogurt still wasn't a thick as in the store but it is yummy. I feel guilty about straining off all that whey just to get a thicker consistency so for now I have been drinking a little bit of it each morning just before eating my homemade breakfast.

A Trip to Philly

 We left early, as usual, Tucker, CJ and I loaded our stuff and ourselves into the truck and headed east.  No we did not leave Steve at home. He spent the previous day working in Pittsburgh so our first stop was to pick him up at his hotel. After lots of loving from Tucker we were once again on the road. I was amazed at how well the truck did on the highway, and how comfortable it was the entire trip.

We visited with Mark & MaryKate and the dogs.
CJ didn't go back to PopPop's house with us.
He opted for a fun filled night with M & MK.

Mark really liked CJ's NCIS hat.

While Steve helped with renovations to MK's kitchen CJ & I went to visit Bunny.

Presents were piled around the tree.

Bunny started with her donut from 7-11.

Bunny and I posing with her new ice/snow scraper. It should be long enough to clean off the entire width of the car.

Testing out the new binoculars.

CJ was thrilled with his gift from Bunny. It was the final book of the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini. It was about 3.5 years between books.

 He spent quite a bit of the rest of the visit and the trip home reading it.
The book was worth every bit of the wait.

After our visit and present opening, we picked up Swati and headed over to the Morris Arboretum. It was a beautiful day and lots of other people were there too. Even saw someone in a OSU sweatshirt.

They have this giant structure, tree house, that includes a human size robin's nest, complete with eggs that need someone to sit on them, to incubate them of course.

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CJ & Aunt Swati

I was the biggest kid playing on the ropes.

Ahhh...sunshine.

CJ and Bunny listening to the sounds of the creatures living in the woods.

The main attraction was the Christmas Railway!

We then met up with Dan who had been working on erecting new fencing in the Wissahickon.

We ate at a little deli/restaurant in the park. The sandwiches were yummy and they had small bags of sweet potato chips the were mmm,mmm, good. Wish we had them in C-bus.

For those of you who are skeptical about bamboo being a sustainable wood source. The tall green trees are bamboo. There are pockets of bamboo just like this all through out this area of Philly. Plant one stalk, get a wall of bamboo in no time at all.

On Saturday, Dan lead CJ and I through the park on one of the newly created trails (while Swati went for a run). This area had been a meadow and then was overrun by non native plants and trees. The Friends of the Wissahickon have worked hard to turn it back into a meadow.

The rock bench CJ & Dan are sitting on was placed there by Dan (and some helpers) as a place for weary hikers to rest. These two weren't weary, just getting out of the way of a couple of mountain bikers.

The stroll through the meadow was enjoyable. We made many stops to look at the rocks; quartz, mica, schist with garnets, and even an interesting mushroom.

 From here we could look down and see the creek, Forbidden Drive and the covered bridge.

 After a quick stop at PopPop's we were off to MK & M's house to see how the renovations were coming. Here you see CJ on guard duty. His job was to keep the dogs out of the mess of the kitchen.

He's doing an impressive job, don't you think!!!

Such a Face

This is the face of a dog who is excited to be included.
This is the face of a dog who doesn't mind a long trip in the car.
This is the face of a dog who really wants to be in the front seat.
This is the face of a dog who thinks he deserves a treat.

Friday Night Live

The high school marching band season doesn't end with the end of the football season. They put together an indoor show that has the kids performing in the aisles as well as on the stage. While this may be necessary because it is a large band, it also makes for a performance that the audience feels a part of.
As in past years, the high school director invited the 7th & 8th graders from both middle schools to be a part of the performance.
By working in the concession stand on the first night of the performance, I was able to watch most of the show and to scope out where in the aisles CJ would be performing. We were able to get seats that were just perfect!
The kids were amazing. They sounded great, the looked great and they had a great time performing.

Steve's Flannel Quilt

Is finally finished. Just in time for the arrival of cold weather.

Everyone Loves a Frosty

With so few kids trick or treating this year we ended up with lots of coupons for free junior frostys.
CJ, Tucker and I enjoyed our 'after band practice' treats.

Sunrise

What a beautiful way to begin a day.

A Watchful Eye

Trying to decide if the croc is friend or foe.

Ahhh Tucker...

First lets start with -The bed was made that morning. Quite often I come home to an unmade bed and wonder why. One morning I found out, Tucker scoots the covers  out of his way, he prefers to sleep on the sheets!
When I first looked in on the sleeping critters Tucker was laying with his feet in the other direction. When he rolled over this is what it looked like. He really has know idea how big he is or where his feet are.

Dickens wasn't quite sure what to make of the sleeping arrangements.

Especially when the big paw ended up wrapped around him!

IELA Project

 The first big project of the school year was in IELA. The students had to pick a topic that involed an American military conflict. CJ chose to write about how Russian tanks helped the Allies win WWII. The report was to be hand written on an 11x17(approx) sheet of paper folded in thirds like a brochure. Pictures were also required. When he was done with the rough draft he had 5 notebook pages filled with his story. Knowing that it would never fit, he called his friend Carol to help condense his masterpiece. It was fascinating listening to Carol ask questions that would get CJ thinking and therefore condensing. It was also fun to listen to CJ and Carol interact. It gave me a glimpse of the CJ that everyone tells me about. CJ turned in the condensed version and I will keep the novella version in his 8th grade memory box.