Forest in a Fog

"Whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."

Yesterday, we took a hike on the AT. I will forever love this trail - I have grown up living with it, walking it, and even spent four days on it after graduating from high school, which is nowhere near the amount of time that many spend with it, but was a more significant vacation than many I have had. There's something in the solitude of a wood, a forest in a fog is a hauntingly beautiful scene, and one that, even with many previous trekkings of the trail, I had yet to fully embrace and explore through my lens.

It was spooky and magical in the best kind of way.

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See outtakes and additional photos on Facebook.

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...

'Tis the Season

Spring is most favorite season, followed closely by Christmas.

In my world, Christmas is its own season. It might have something to do with my day job. Christmas began there on September 15th, on the day I unboxed my first Christmas ornament of the year. The next day I treated myself to a pumpkin spice latte, even if it was 70 degrees outside, because that's what I do to ring in the season.

I bought my ornaments in October. And it was before Halloween thank-you-very-much. Two weeks ago, we went out to buy an artificial tree, to avoid the debacle that was the Christmas Tree Disaster of 2010, which involved an antique heirloom artificial tree (read: decrepit tree from a parent's attic that's stand went missing circa 1970 and refused to stay straight in a modern tree stand) and our dear furry child (read: greedy demon monster who believes all ornaments belong to him and will go to all lengths to destroy them with his gnashing teeth and gnarly talons). Let's just say that by the end of the holiday season, the top of the tree was dressed to the nines with holiday goodness...and the bottom was naked. It also may have found a horizontal resting place on the floor at one point in time, tipsy with too much holiday joy and bowled over by our sweet little ornament thief in his quest to destroy every last one. I think that was when I gave up and packed it all away to try again in a year.

So this year we hauled ourselves to Target to get a tree that might withstand Aslan's advances. We put it up in the days before Thanksgiving, and decorated it over the weekend. Everything was gravy until we noticed that the bottom branches were drooping as if they had held too much weight. And that was when the Christmas Tree was promptly moved to the sunroom, where it would be protected by double paned glass doors from the menace who will not leave it alone.

Of all the things I have trouble designing, my Christmas tree is not one. Each ornament on it I love and cherish. As we were decorating it, I apologized to Ben that it may scream me more than it reflects him. He seemed to be okay with that.

Oh, and if you haven't discovered it already, I now have a real Facebook page just for photography. Finally! I've been trying to post extra exciting stuff there too.

Happy Last Day of November!