The Hazard Chronicles

This morning I awoke quietly and lay in my bed.  The first thing to greet me was the strong fresh smell of pine. My door was closed, but the smell was able to penetrate in to wake me up.  What a wonderful way to begin the day!  I look forward to that smell every time I enter the house, hang out in the living room, or wake up in the morning.

Yesterday we drove to a local farm, located our perfect tree, cut it down, and went to a warm building to enjoy hot chocolate while other people shook out our tree and wrapped it for us.  What a great way to go!  We had the fun of picking a still growing tree, but we didn't have to do all of the work. Also, it was only slightly longer than the perfect amount of time to have our kids out in the 7 degree weather (windchill of -11). Brilliant.

Lets go back 12 months or so to last Christmastime.  Our tree, really just a branch, stretched the limits of our Christmas tree base... Because the trunk of our little branch was so little.  This year our lovely tree finally made it in to our base after a little bit of scraping and prodding to get the large trunk to fit (sort of).  Soon after, however, we heard a whooshing sound and looked in time to see our graceful 10 foot tree do a swan dive onto our carpet.  Our little base was twisted and bent beyond recognition.  Needless to say, we have a much better tree this year. After purchasing a new base and setting up our lovely tree I am still finding out new reasons why I love our home!  The tree space in our living room was created for tall, wide, and lovely Christmas trees.

Last year I had to physically take the needles off of the tree and break them to get my Christmas tree smell fix.  This year I can smell Christmas nearly everywhere in our home.  I am one happy girl!

Yesterday we decorated the tree as a family while listening to Christmas carols.  Everything is perfect except for the fact that I have no idea how we are going to untangle the lights that we put up there.  I managed to buy lights that separate into three strands... We wound those around the existing lights and we are just hoping that we will untangle them when the time comes.  For now, we will just enjoy the beautiful tree, glorious smell, and magic of Christmas time.

I need to mention that no matter what we do Christmas related, all of the three older kids (especially Evelyn) are quick to point out that Jesus is the main reason for the Christmas season.  I love this.  I can not tell you how many times I was called out by one child or another who was announcing that Jesus had been born and I needed to come and see Him.  My favorite time happened yesterday after we had finished decorating the tree. Evelyn came to my room sporting 2 large branches behind her back that we had trimmed off of the tree. She informed me that she was an angel and that I was a shepherd. She told me to 'fear not' for Jesus was born in a manger, and that I must follow the star to come see Him. I am grateful for my kids who help me always to stay in the real spirit of Christmas.

On Monday, Widget (our Christmas elf),made his appearance.  He brought with him a tray full of brownies and a thank you message written in Cheerios (for the pictures the kids drew for him). I had heard from Santa that Widget has been a little bit of a troublemaker this year.  He has been pretty mischievous so far!  The kids love it.

I am loving the holidays so far. I feel blessed in so many ways this season.

I will post a Thanksgiving post soon!  We had an excellent trip to Utah to visit my family.

Hooray for Christmas time and hooray for best friends

Widget, our mischievous elf, took selfies with each of the kids the other night

Here are the kids while we had hot chocolate while waiting for our tree.  It was a brilliant idea to offer free hot chocolate along side high priced caramel popcorn and cinnamon rolls.  :)