Un Nütencracker

Tiffani recently moved to Alabama for her clinical rotations, and although her schedule has been hectic, she and Athena came to Atlanta last weekend to stay. This time our family got a special treat and got to meet her boyfriend, Ethan.

Athena and Tiffani have a tradition to see The Nutcracker every year, but the closest place the Moscow Ballet was having a show was Jacksonville, FL. So, this year they bent tradition a bit and came to see the Atlanta Ballet perform. She was gracious enough to extend the invitation to Mason, Brian and I. However, with ticket prices as they were, Mason was the only one that went.

The four of them got all gussied up on Saturday morning and headed downtown to the Fox Theater. The Fox is an old-school theater where they still have ushers that dress in a traditional usher uniform and escort you to your seat via flashlight – part of the whole experience, I suppose.

Come back any time! Miss you already!

Wii Fit Fun

The Tree –

This year I wanted to share a fond childhood memory with my family – cutting our own Christmas tree. To some this seems like only work; but to others it's about the experience of going to the Christmas tree farm and choosing the perfect tree.

I scoured the internet to find a Christmas tree farm in the Atlanta area. Okay, so I didn't have to scour...Google worked just fine. Anyway, we found Thompson's Christmas Tree Farm in Lawrenceville and off we went.


Most of what Thompson's had were Cypress trees. Cypress trees are a little flimsy for hanging ornaments on and we were looking for something a little more sturdy. They did have Fraser firs, but they had to be shipped in from North Carolina because that type of evergreen doesn't grow well this far south. Who would have thought I could have learned so much looking for a Christmas tree?


We found a beautiful Fraser fir and Brian started sawing. Woops, those were already pre-cut (you know, because they were shipped from North Carolina)...so no sawing necessary. It was the experience we were after, mind you.


Mason got to visit with Santa at the tree farm as well. He ran up and gave him a squeeze like they were old friends.


"Have you been a good boy this year?" "I'd like Bolt, in 3D, please," Mason said, totally avoiding the good boy question.


Cheesy 5-year old grin for the camera. Yay!


I am guessing the experience of Thompson's wouldn't be complete without a hay ride behind the 1952 Ford tractor in 30º weather.


Nothing like relaxing on itchy hay bales.


I took this photo with the camera at arm's length...and Mason was warning me not to drop the camera.


We got our beautiful Fraser fir home and Brian trimmed it up so that we wouldn't have to cut a hole in the ceiling. I had made paper origami stars to decorate the tree with, but Mason seemed to prefer the more traditional ornaments...


...so I hung the stars myself.


Mason stood on the arm of the couch so he could reach higher. I have visions of him falling into the tree and being stuck in the needles. EEK!


Of course, we had to put our K-State ornament front and center. Go Wildcats!


A closeup of one of the many paper stars that Mason and I made.

...and the final product! Merry Christmas!!!

I have wanted to do this for the last 8 years:

This Post is for YOU, Julia –

We are going to get our Christmas tree this weekend. I suggested we not get one this year because our living room is the size of a large walk-in closet, but you would have thought I asked Brian to cut off his arm! Okay, so Christmas doesn't really feel like Christmas without a tree, but dangit, our living room is the size of a refrigerator box!

Brian is right, though. A child shouldn't have to go through Christmas without a tree. So, I quickly caved (cuz I'm a wooz) and we are going this weekend. I hope we find a perfect, non-Charlie Brown tree that fills our entire living room. I will post photos of the journey next week!

Conehead:

Callie is a working dog. No free rides for this pup. She goes to work on the golf course with Brian every day. She enjoys running along side the golf cart, chasing geese, and swimming in the ponds. That sounded like a singles ad.

Anyway, poor Callie managed to scratch here eye. It got so gross that Brian took her to the vet. Look at what that mean vet did to our beautiful dog! I really did think that cones were something from the movies, and that vets really didn't do this to animals. I couldn't help but take a picture...and laugh hysterically.

Apparently while Callie was at work, she used her cone to scoop dirt. I am amazed that she can even see where she's going. Maybe that is why she's always bumping into me.

She went back to the vet yesterday for a checkup and was sentenced to 3 more days in the cone. Poor thing! I almost feel bad for kenneling her at night because she can't move in her crate. Only a few more days, girl. Hang in there!

A Boy and His Train:

Meet Thomas. Thomas was given to Mason in 2005 by his great grandparents. He was not quite 3. We assembled Thomas only once after opening it at Christmas, but at 3, I could see this wonderful (and no doubt expensive) electric train set getting broken into a million pieces. So, Thomas went into a box...


...and was totally forgotten about until yesterday. The controls for this Thomas train set are simple and seemingly durable; with the exception of the wiring. Mason had no difficulties figuring out how to make Thomas go as fast as possible. Counting to 100 was a piece of cake for him.


He also had no difficulties figuring out how each piece fit together and went onto the track.


It also didn't take him too long to figure out that the passenger cars won't go without the engine.


I only kicked the train over a few times to get this photo. Honest!

Okay, so I also had to kick the train off of the track to get this photo...

...and this photo. Look at how he concentrates to get the train just right! I only kicked the train off so that he could work on his finger dexterity! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!