… A few pictures from Instagram and my phone.
December 16th
I think the kids might be trying to tell us something…
December 17th
I’ve been in survival mode lately, and keep forgetting to take pictures of the Wise Men… They had me laughing this morning when I noticed them loading their Christmas Tree on top of the camel!
December 18th
The five big kids were all gone overnight for our last day without water… When they arrived home yesterday they discovered that the Wise Men (and Legos) had all lost their Christmas trees! 😉
Uh oh! Now that we finally had water and could get to town, we had a bit of a hard time finding a Christmas Tree… Where we live many people buy Christmas Tree permits and head into the mountains to cut their own trees. However, due to the weather and roads, most people bought trees in town this year and everywhere is pretty much sold out… We discovered that the
Christmas Tree Farm we have been going to the past couple years closed (they are converting their land to a vegetable farm) and the other local tree farms had closed for the season! I couldn’t even find artificial trees!
Sean ended up going to a nursery and came home with this green Blue Spruce. Hahaha! We joked that someday we will look back on this year and say: “Remember that year we were stuck home due to the snow, had no water for 6 days, couldn’t find a Christmas tree so we bought (a way too expensive) tree at the nursery to plant outside… and even it died!” 😉 That would be our luck this year!
Dec 19th
My brother Brian called and said he happened to pass by a tree lot, in a little town just south of us, and that they still had some trees! Sean drove down and ended up buying a tree for only $15! It is a little lopsided and was a little too tall, but he was able to fix that, and now we just need to decorate it today!
It’s a good thing we didn’t wait any longer to start looking for this year’s tree..
Of course, Christmas would have come just the same, with or without a Christmas Tree!
Prayer of Mothers
Father in heaven, grant me the grace to appreciate the dignity which you have conferred on me. Let me realize that not even the Angels have been blessed with such a privilege—to share in your creative miracle and bring new Saints to heaven. Make me a good mother to all my children after the example of Mary, the Mother of your Son. Through the intercession of Jesus and Mary I ask your continued blessings on my family. Let us all be dedicated to your service on earth and attain the eternal happiness of your kingdom in heaven. Amen.
Our very first Christmas tree (32 years ago) was a live one-it looked a bit like Charlie Brown's tree. We planted it after Christmas and the last time we drove by that old house, it was taller than the house!
We still have the live tree and haven't decided if we are going to bring it in the house or not. The nursery said that it can't stay inside for long. My mom had live trees four years. The first three all died, but the last is doing great!
We have a hard time keeping anything alive in our yard, but we are going to give it a try anyways!
So much penance should make for a glorious Christmas! (From my mouth to God's ear :-)) Happy fourth Sunday, Jessica
Same here for us – we went looking for a tree on the 17th and all the lots were picked over and the farms closed already for the season!!! In past years we cut our own on the tree farms, but this year for whatever reason, people went extra early? It's nuts that a full week before Christmas one can't even find a tree easily. We got one of the last five at a stand in town – it's not the best tree, but it's not too bad considering! Look forward to seeing your decorated tree!!!!
When we were a young couple, we waited until late in December to get a tree because we'd been so busy. When we finally went to get a tree, we couldn't find one anywhere. We went from store to store, in vain. Finally we ended up at our local Chinese restaurant, tired young kids in tow. We must have looked stressed, because the owner brought out wontons for one kid and took the other off to the corner to bounce in front of her tree.
We ended up using a two foot artificial tree. And yes, we fondly remember that year every time we set up a Christmas tree – real, artificial or even the tiny two foot tree.