It’s beginning to look a lot like ….

Christmas… it’s rapidly approaching...So, we’re doing our part to go with the season.. Full Picture Album here: Linky!

It’s been rather cold here for a while, so at least this year, the weather feels like Christmas should be coming… Unlike last year when it was still in the 70’s approaching Christmas Day.

So, we went out and got a Christmas tree! Last year’s tree was about 18” tall, and while it was wonderful, this year we decided to step it up a little bit. We went to a “Choose and Cut” Christmas Tree Farm, Circle C Tree Farm (Website Here). So.. on that note… For those who have never been to a Christmas Tree Farm, let me explain how these places, or at least this one, work. You drive up, all excited to get a tree. You hop out of the car, and someone magically appears out of nowhere with a pole with markings on it to designate certain heights. The person who magically appeared quickly explains how the process works. “Please stay to the left side of the road when selecting a tree, when you find one that you like, stand there with your 10ft pole and wave it around until someone shows up to cut the tree down. From this point, they’ll put a tag on your tree, and you can come back down to the barn and buy yourself something hot to drink, or some kettle corn. Pricing is as follows : $8 per foot up to 7ft($56); $9 per foot up to 8ft($72); $10 per foot up to 9ft($90); $11 per foot up to 10ft($110); and $12 per foot up to 11ft.($132)” So… ummm wow. We were looking for a tree about 5ft tall. So… in magical tree land dollars… that’s $40… “Oh, and there is a stack of smaller trees leaned up against the barn for $28 each.” … Awesome.. now we’re cooking.

So, after sorting through the trees by the barn… holding them up and rotating them… looking to see how much we could get them to “floof” out .. and looking for flat spots and bare spots, we finally found an awesome tree. It’s about 5-1/2' Feet tall, and very full. So, we paid for it, the workers bagged it for us, and we crammed it into the back seat to take back home. Not at all bad for $28.

We got the tree home, trimmed off some of the lower branches… with one of our least favorite kitchen knives… and got it set up in the stand. We’d gone to Wal-Mart before we got the tree to get the essentials for the rest of the day. We picked up two 19.7 foot strings of LED Christmas lights thinking that surely, 40ft of lights would be more than enough for a 5-1/2ft tree. Since I had to drag the tree up the stairs, mangle the lower branches and get it into the stand, Virginia took over with the decorating.

Here’s where we ran out of lights and garland… Oops! We still had a bit more to go… and we didn’t have nearly the amount of ornaments as we thought we had… The ornaments that we did have were glass… and since Gracie became rather interested in the tree as soon as we brought it into the house… we decided we needed to go back to Wal-Mart. On that note… next time you go to Wal-Mart… print out the following “Wal-Mart BINGO card” and let us know your results. But back to the point, we picked up some more lights, and then went to Big-Lots to get some cheapo plastic Christmas Balls and some Candy Canes to finish off the tree.

So, we got the tree all decorated, after having to get another string of lights, and another package of Garland… and Candy Canes!!

I grabbed the camera, set it up on the tripod, and set it on auto. Here we are with the tree, and I even crammed Gracie into a little red dress for the Christmas photo. 

*** Added Fun!***

So… if you start here and using the cursor keys, go forward through the 10 pictures that the camera shot… it’s like a nice little animation… you can see the cat trying to break free and possibly kill us… She wasn’t really happy with the dress… but it was really cute!

The Kitty was being helpful though… she decided that she would help us out by checking the old strings of lights…

But then, she turned into the devil. She decided that it would be a great idea to climb the curtains and walk across the top of the curtain rod.

She bent the rod of course… and I think she’s rather determined to rip down the Christmas tree… But.. she’s still a good time.

 

We hope you’re all doing well and wish you Happy Holidays!!

We got engaged!

So, here is the story according to me (Virginia):

We got back from Thanksgiving, which was a 5 hour drive that should only take 3.5, so I was tired and grumpy and I just wanted to get in my PJ's and lay around the house. But it was around dinner time so Aaron was all energetic and wanted to go out and get steaks to make bourbon steaks.

I said that I wasn't hungry, but I might  be later. So he went ahead to the store without me. I put on my comfiest must hole-filled PJ's and my socks that look like dead Muppets, and proceeded to vegetate.

When Aaron got back from the store he was all happy, even though he didn't get steaks he found some scallops and wrapped them in bacon. We both love pretty much anything wrapped in bacon, so I was excited. He also got my favorite wine, and baby asparagus, and some sushi for appetizer.

So, I was a little surprised and did ask him why all the fancy food, but Aaron loves making fancy food, so I wasn't too suspicious. Plus, he was acting really relaxed, and usually when he's trying to surprise me he gets more jumpy.

After dinner he reached into a kitchen cupboard and pulled out a bunch of red roses. So NOW, I was kind of suspicious. I mean, a nice meal is one thing, but roses.... for no reason...

So this is the part where I made a giant fool of myself. As, we are cleaning the plates I notice that there is a black velvet bag on the back of one of the chairs. So I'm thinking, "hum, jewelry comes in black velvet bags..."

So I ask, "What's this?!?" And Aaron of course is like, "Why don't  you open it and find out."

Well, I did and it was..... dice. Because we had played a dice game like two weeks ago, and I had forgotten that the dice were also in a black velvet bag.

So Aaron's laughing his butt off. He's like "Ha. ha, is someone expecting something?!?"

Then he paused, and was like, "But if I were going to propose, I'd do this...."

And he got down on one knee and pulled a box out of his pocket.

Of course now, I'm all suspicious. "Are you serious. Is that real??? Are you really serious?"

And he said, "I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?" There may have been more, it's all kind of a blur. And, of course, I said yes.

And my ring is beautiful. It's a Jennifer Wells original with a princess cut center diamond surrounded by rubies which are both Aaron and my birthstone.

We haven't made any plans yet, but thanks to everyone who has already set their nice words and congratulations. We'll keep you posted.

Thanksgiving!!!

I’m trying out “Windows Live Writer” as blogger has recently decided to go all goofy when it comes to writing new posts… for some reason, it forgot how to automatically size pictures, and I’ve been having to go in and edit the HTML manually… and that’s no fun… so.. if things look goofy, let me know….

On with the posts!

Here’s the Thanksgiving Photo Album : Linky!

Well, we went home for Thanksgiving... it was a good time.. kind-of on the way home, except not really, we drove down to Charlotte to pick up my sister's Beau, Victor. .. It wasn't a bad ride... we hit a bit of traffic on the way back up.. but nothing too horrible. We got in Wednesday night... got some Pizza... relaxed around the house for a bit... and then it was off to the bars for the annual gathering at The Palms... however, that joint was PACKED... so.. we stayed for one pitcher, and got out of there... Next, we tried going to the Southern Inn.... also packed.... standing room only.. so we weren't there very long either... basically just long enough for us to say HI to Jennifer and for me to get a little package from her ... ... ... 

So, to finish off Wednesday night, we grabbed a few beverages... and spent the night back at the house (we being: Me, Virginia, Rachel [My Sis], Victor [Her Beau], Newhall and Lisa) playing some card games and some dice games.


Here's Mom getting some food ready on Thursday. From the looks of it, I think she was working on the multi-layered dip… with cheese… and beans… and awesome-ness.




Dad and Tyger … Tyger was dad’s birthday present a few years ago… and she’s his girl all the way… she just tolerates everyone else in the house. But, for some reason this time, she took to sleeping on my Eddie Bauer sweater… and wouldn’t get off of it.


Dad, Vince, Victor, Lisa, Gramps – from left to right… with only about 1/2 of Gramps showing…  We went over to Granny Trovato’s house at about 2PM or so.. and started eating appetizers : Queso Dip; Multi-Layered cheesy, beany, awesomey, dip; Veggie Tray (With Ranch dip as well as some dip with Dill in it…); a cheese and crackers tray; and a tray of sausage with 2 good mustards… This was the appetizer.


Here’s my sis, Rachel. Don’t let the innocent look fool you. She’s pure evil. She once killed a man with her bare hands for taking her parking space… It was crazy. Well… maybe that’s not quite how it happened… but she did yell a lot..


Of course, here’s Newhall. He’s smiling because he’s eating.

It was nice to be home for a few days… even though we basically just sat around and ate non-stop for several days… totally worth it though..