A White Christmas

This being my first Christmas not in hell retail, I decided back in June when I left that I was going to thoroughly enjoy the holidays and relax with family and friends as much as possible. Mother Nature must have known that I am the worst at doing a whole lot of nothing (I can't sit still to save my life, which is why I attempted to squeeze four meals/celebrations into Christmas day), so she kindly decided to dump a bucketload of snow on my families' homes both before and after Christmas to make sure that I would have no choice but to fulfill my promise of lounging through the holidays.

However, the child in me cannot stay out of the falling snow, which is why on Christmas Eve, you might have seen my sister, brother-in-law, and me doing hill sprints up the side of the mountain as the snow came down around and on us. And why I've been running outside to take pictures of the beautiful white Christmas that seems to only come during the most magical and special of Christmases...and that made this one of the most beautiful Christmases of all.

May you and your families have a relaxing holiday week and enjoy the beauty of your wintery surroundings!

A new puppy for Kathryn and Jeff!

They say getting a puppy is a test for having a baby...which let me tell you...once you get married, EVERYONE and their grandmother wants to know when that will happen - the baby that is, not the puppy. I've spent years trying to convince my family that our cat is our child, of course to no avail, because the instant we stepped foot in the house for Thanksgiving, someone (definitely an aunt) wanted to know when the baby would be on the way. Sigh.

Our good friends Kathryn and Jeff have been waiting to get their sweet Alaskan Malamute, Dude, for almost as long as it takes to have a baby. And for now, he is certainly the new love of their lives. We got to do a fun holiday-inspired portrait session at the Kinder Farm Park with this bundle of cuteness the day after he came home. At only 8 weeks, Dude was super fluffy and soft and sweet. And a little tired from all of his new adventures, which made him extra photogenic!

For new parents, I've heard it's love at first sight...which I think comes even easier when your first child is a puppy. How can you not love that cotton ball fur, those sweet eyes and lickable kisses?!

Get ready to be bowled over by all of this cuteness...

Hooray puppies!

Finding the Perfect Tree

Even though Ben and I have started our own family Christmas Tree, my mom still gets a real one. So we went to help her get it.


Ben and I are great tree picker-outers. Our current record for finding the perfect tree is about 3 minutes. I don't have pictures of said tree, but I guarantee you it was awesome and practically-perfect-in-every-way.

But when we go with my family, it inevitably takes a little longer. Everyone wants their suggestion to be the tree. One person finds a tree that they think might be THE ONE, and then the rest of us trudge over to it, only to point out all of its flaws, like the GIGANTIC HOLE IN THE SIDE. And then the person who made us all abandon our own search for the perfect tree, without fail, asks why it matters, we'll just put that side against the wall. Of course. Because really the tree is perfect from 180 other angles.

This year was no different. Except that the tree selection seemed a little more limited (probably because we shopped the same 30-steps-from-the-top-of-the-farm section we've been getting our tree from for the past five years, so we - and the rest of the lazy/brilliant people who don't want to haul themselves all the way to the bottom of the tree-filled hill only to have to come back up lugging a 12 foot monstrosity - have chopped down most of the prime options). So one person would pick a tree, we'd tear its potential to shreds, walk away to find another, only to come back to the same tree 10 minutes later when someone else thought it would be the perfect one.

Finally we did all agree on one that has a gigantic hole in one side, and said hole is most definitely residing on the side of the tree against the wall. Ben and I lost a bet, so we got to be the lucky ones to wrap it in strings of white lights. I'm pretty sure my mom is going to be cursing our names when it comes time to un-light the tree because I take my tangling lessons from Aslan, who is most certainly the master of tangling long strings of frustration.

Truthfully, I did not make many tree suggestions this year in the name of documenting the adventure.

Mom brought along a yardstick to make sure we got the right size tree.

However, the yardstick, being only 3 feet tall, was most definitely not long enough on its own to properly measure the perfect tree. So my mom got all scientific and invented a way to make sure we found a tree that would be tall enough.

Pulling an empty cart up the tree farm's hill looked hard enough. This is why we shop the top half of the hill.

The tree we got is probably twice as tall as my sister. Which is why we made her carry it.

I'm pretty sure I told Ben that this picture wasn't going on my blog. I probably promised it. Twice. But I break my promises. I can't help it when he looks so handsome!

Only 13 days until Santa comes! I might not be able to sleep, I'm so excited...