Over the Border and Through the Woods

Time for our (now) annual tradition with the H. family!  Three years running, we have joined our friends crossing the border (the Wisconsin one) to go to CaPaul's Christmas Tree Farm.  This year we followed them up the day after Thanksgiving, caravan-style as usual.  Although it was the season's coldest day yet, everyone was in a chipper mood, with college students home for their break, and special time together with friends.

A couple of retired reindeer.

Here is our story in pictures:

College student in a sweatshirt, 18-degree wind chill...

Our family.

CaPaul's has this nice, warm building--an extra-large room, really--where they serve hot apple cider and have Christmas-y things for sale.

It has been my personal tradition to purchase an ornament every year, with the goal of having our Christmas tree decked out in nothing but snowflakes and glass icicles.  It's mostly snowflakes so far, since I can't ever find glass icicles.  This year, Fernando purchased the large gold one in the image above (on the right), and a plastic box of 10 gold snowflakes.  So, I've already been triply blessed this Christmas--I have gifts from my husband, snowflakes for my tree, and mementos of our little annual trip into the Wisconsin Christmas tree woods!

Stick around for Part Two of this little trip...!


Back to life,
Christine

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Thanksgiving 2012

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful!

We had a great time with my family.  Thanksgiving has always been at my parents' home, just 20 minutes away, and this year was no different--except it was at their new home!  We always have a lot of stuff to bring for the day:

Food, games, musical instruments...

Here is our day, in pictures.

Three generations!

Fernando fell asleep before dinner.

Turkey tidbits before dinner.  :)

 Danny.

My silly Dad and his annual tradition.  :)

Back to life,
Christine

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Two in the Kitchen

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  If you're blog-hopping today, I wish you the Lord's blessings on this special day!

Jacob is home from WIU for this week!  Here's what he did on Sunday, when he had his buddies and their families over for the afternoon/evening:

Boys will be boys, no matter their ages...

Two days before Thanksgiving, on this Tuesday afternoon, I decided to start baking the pies we would bring to my parents' new home, where we are celebrating Thanksgiving this year.  Jacob was home from college for the week, and he wanted to join me in the kitchen.  So, we made tea, then we made pies.  Together.  :)

Sun streaming in the window on baking day.

The buttermilk pie is ready to go in the oven.

Ball of dough waiting for its pie plate.

Pecan pie.

The kitchen got rather messy--naturally!

Three pies.

Jacob set about getting things ready to make the crumble topping for the French apple pie.  At one point, I looked over and saw this:

He had the butter all ready to add to the crumble mix.  :)

Buttermilk pie!

French apple pie waiting for its turn in the oven.

Pecan pie.

Fudge pie--a new recipe to try this year.

Clockwise from back left:  French apple, pecan, buttermilk, fudge pie.

All that baking, all afternoon, makes one very tired.  The guys made hotdogs for dinner, but I whipped up some comfort food for myself, and the boys and I shared some Izze.

Hope your Thanksgiving is spent in joyful celebration with the ones you love!


Back to life,
Christine

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Home for Thanksgiving!

I was so excited!  Ten long weeks and the day finally came.  I thought we'd be late to the train station, but the train was also late so we were fine.

My 17-85mm lens failed again, so I was left with my 50mm, which I tried to make the most of.

I sure miss the wide angle aspect of that little kit lens, but at least the 50mm is a solid performer.  (Sorry, I'm in "photography blog" mode!)  I took a few "photographer" shots while waiting for Jacob's train to arrive.  Yes, we were standing on the tracks.  :)

Finally, a light in the distance!  *excitement*

Um, yeah.  Total psych!  A freight train on the second track.  Sigh.  Finally, we saw another light on the horizon.

This was it!!

Home.

Thank You, Lord.


Back to life,
Christine

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