Today became a "Christmas Tree Party" and a fantastic family day

Today turned into one focus: Acquiring and decorating our Christmas tree!

Violet had been begging to go get one earlier in the week so Dave told her on Saturday morning we'd go get one.  Saturday morning came, and everybody woke up "late", which means 7:30 instead of 6:30.  The kids always enjoy pancakes on Saturday mornings because we have the time to make them.  Sometimes, just sometimes I get "fun" and put food coloring in them and make fun designs on the griddle.  In the past we've colored the batter pink and created hearts.  We've also made the batter blue and green for various other things.

I came up with the idea to try create "Christmas Tree Pancakes" with the batter.  You should have seen Violet's eyes light up and her face look shocked.  She said "Mom! You come up with the BEST ideas EVER!!"  So I had to try.  I separated some batter and colored some green, some pink and some yellow.  Mostly green though.

My first attempt was the biggest pancake I think I've ever created.  The whole time it was cooking on the first side Dave and I brainstormed how to flip the thing without breaking it.  We used two big spatulas to slide it onto a large flat cookie sheet, so I could then flip the cookie sheet over and cook the other side.

This griddle can handle about 8 circle pancakes, this "tree" took up the whole thing.  Violet and Calvin split this one:

Dave and I also gave the kids a little motivation to clean up the house.  We told them if they cleaned up ALL the toys (the basement looked like a toy box exploded) on the main floor and the basement, then we would leave to go get a tree when they finished.  They scurried and quickly picked up enthusiastically for awhile, but we had to encourage them to finish as they would get distracted and start playing.  If Calvin is engaged and focused, he can be super productive and move quickly.  But today he seemed to be a bit more distracted.  The bigger challenge for mom and dad was keeping Vanessa OUT of the toys so that the older two kids could pick them up and put them away.  After a couple hours went by, the house was spotless!   I was impressed, and the kids seemed proud of their work.  We got packed in the van and left by 12:15.  I was hoping for a quick trip picking out a tree because I knew they would all be getting tired and hungry soon.  Especially Vanessa, who didn't sit still long enough to eat a decent breakfast. 

We did make a short detour to a place called Home Interior to check out some countertops and appliances....the kitchen will be getting a little facelift in the next couple months so we are in the planning stages.  After the "quick" 45 minute stop there, we were off to go pick out a Christmas tree.  We must have been big fans of detours, because Dave and I wanted to drive by the river house to see if the new owners had made any action or started any big projects.  When we approached the house we could see a big dumpster in the driveway and a car in the yard with their lights on.  We didn't pull up, just drove by, and both felt happy that the house was finally getting some much deserved attention. :)  Neither of us were sad.  We are both more emotionally invested in our current house now.  Dave said the time from the flood to the sale of the house was enough time for him to become enough detached to where selling it wasn't painful. 

Ok...so FINALLY we were off to go search for our Christmas tree.  I'm not really sure why I'm capitalizing Christmas.  It just seems right.  We missed the turn to Kris Kringles Tree Farm where we always get our tree, so we had to go around it the long way and get it from the highway.  Violet remembered the place, and remembered that the guy at the first stop when you pull up tells you where all the different types of trees are planted and that he provides you a saw so you can saw down your own tree.  I forgot to mention that it was RAINING.  Yeah...not the best "hunt for a Christmas tree" weather, but we had to make it work.  The kids got out of their car seat harnesses and stood up to intently look out the windows for "the perfect tree".  Violet was the most opinionated about every tree she saw.  The paths around the tree farm were MUDDY MUDDY MUDDY.  Dave was cringing driving our "new" van through the mucky-ness.  We eventually found a nice frasier fir and some tree farm worker guys pulled up right next to us and chopped down our tree for us and hauled it to the main lodge to get shaken out and "packed up" in that plastic netting.  We stopped in the lodge to pay for the tree.  There was a Santa over in the corner handing out little candy canes, and free sugar cookies, popcorn, and hot apple cider.  I think Calvin took 4 of the cookies!

Calvin ran into one of his preschool classmates, named Corbin.  They chatted in their cute little 3 and 4 yr old ways.  Calvin hid a piece of popcorn in his hand and played hide and seek with his friend with the piece of popcorn, which he treated like a jewel cupping his hands around it, hiding it, and exposing it repeatedly and giggling. 

We paid for our tree, got in the van again, and drove over to where they load it on your vehicle for you.  We laid down some big towels on the top of the van to prevent scratching.  We got home...and the rest of the day was dedicated to putting the tree up and decorating it.  I gave the kids some soup (Vanessa ate the most!).  Vanessa went down for a nap at 2:30pm.  I was craving something sweet...and our house had nothing...so Calvin and I made a run to Hy-Vee to get some ice cream while Dave and Violet worked on stringing lights on the tree.  I got peppermint candy, mint chip, and bunny tracks....and I also threw in some frozen chicken in my cart, knowing we had no chicken left in the freezer.

We got home and all enjoyed some ice cream....and then kept decorating.  The kids enjoyed every aspect of it, but THE MOST enjoyable aspect of decorating it was hanging all the candy canes all over the tree.  Every single broken candy cane got eaten.  Calvin and Violet both sampled many different kinds of candy canes, and raved and ooohed and ahhhed over every different flavor (we had gotten life saver flavored ones, peppermint ones, cherry ones, etc...). 

Towards the end of the night, we bathed all the kids, got them all snuggly in their pajamas, turned on the fireplace, and had a snacky supper of Ritz crackers, cheese slices, ham slices, and apples.  I never know what Vanessa wants to eat...sometimes she refuses cheese, sometimes she loves it.  Tonight, cheese was her friend.  She was shoveling in cheese slices like they were candy.

Calvin ate ritz crackers like they were candy, and he also drank the most water.  Dave worked on painting Violet's fingers and toes red with a layer of sparkles on top.

It was a wonderful day, full of good memories, good times, and most of all, time spent all together enjoying each other's company.  Loved every moment of it!

A few pics:

I have to mention the reason why Calvin's shirt was pulled up in the pic above.  He had slid down the banister from the second floor to the main floor, and his skin is what skidded and he said it was stinging.  There was little red mark on his tummy from the rubbing contact from sliding...and he tried all sorts of things to make it feel better.  He said "Maybe if I put my toy car on it it will feel better."  Then he tried putting a piece of ham or cheese on the owie spot so it would feel better.  I'm not sure of his reasoning to why those objects would make his skin stop hurting, but we all got a good laugh out of it.  Maybe he will be the world's next natural healer.