It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Such a fun full day. We started out with the Christmas Cafe and Fair here at the Seminary. The kids basically get to shop for ridiculously low prices, for everyone in their immediate family, while we eat snacks and socialize. It's amazing, they get to go and choose and 'buy' things with the help of another adult and it all gets to be a surprise for the rest of us, and it all happens in one morning. The staff and faculty wives buy items throughout the year for this event. Love it.

Then we headed North and got to have a quick bite of lunch with friends we don't see nearly enough, since our move.

After that, we headed up to our favorite Christmas tree farm, Celesta Farms in Sebastopol to pick out and chop down our Christmas tree, it's one of my favorite traditions. We love this place, complete with free cookies and hot drinks and reasonable prices. It really is a family affair, choosing our tree is a tricky process and we all have different ideas but we always find the perfect tree for us.

Exhausted but happy, we ended our day at Pings for Chinese Food, for dinner. There would be no cooking after that long day.

We got our tree!

Yesterday we went out and bought our Xmas tree. I love the idea of participating in cutting down our own tree, but the last few years we have bought our trees from Costco instead. A few times we have tagged along with friends (for the experience first), but it was hard to justify the much higher price, for not necessarily a better, or bigger tree. This year that all changed.

A good friend told me about Celesta Farms, out in Sebastopol. It was just a little further than a lot of the other farms, but it was a beautiful drive and the prices were great. They also threw in free netting of the tree as well as free coffee, cocoa, hot cider and cookies, all of which a lot of the other places charge for. The kids are at the age where they really can appreciate the whole experience now, so it was the perfect time to start a new tradition.

On a mission to find OUR tree.

Everybody had the chance to help with the sawing...until finally...TIMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The prize. Good work everyone. Great team effort.

Posing with hot chocolates and free cookies. The only picture I made it into, but at least there is one.

It really was a great experience and it was so fun to see them all so excited and eager to help. I loved it. More memories being made for our family. Fun, fun, fun!