Its Been a Christmas-like Week

It's been a Christmas-like week..............it started with snow earlier in the week, which lasted less than 24 hours and then promptly warmed back up to 70. As you can tell the boys are in shorts. I'm questioning why my mouth is always open and why my head is so fat.
We went to Lowe's this year to get our Christmas tree. Last year it was Home Depot. We got a great deal on this noble fir.......$32 for the tree AND stand! We had a miserable tree experience last year. I actually returned the tree because it was too pokey.

I miss my childhood days of caravanning with 3 or 4 families into the rugged mountains of Wyoming, sledding and building snow caves while the adults hiked through the snow to cut Christmas trees. Maybe people still do that, but this is what you get when you live in a big city.

Samantha made these super cute ornaments for us this year. She actually just made the lettering. She got the glass pieces from Hobby Lobby. But they are super cute and I told her that she needs to sell them at her craft shows next year.


Here is the near-complete decorated tree. I have spent up to 6 or 7 hours wrapping each branch with lights and this year it only took 3. My wife let me cheat. Don't ask why I have to do this, but I suspect it's because my lovely, beautiful wife doesn't want to. We're talking 12 to 15 strands of lights on this bad boy!

In all, it has been a pleasant week and it ended last night with our church Christmas Concert. We combine with the Epiphany Catholic Church, which is just across the street from ours, to sing songs. This is the 15th year of doing this between the 2 churches. We don't have any pictures, but one of our church friends actually has video......Marci Freeman. You can find her link on our blog list under "Day by Day". A big shout out to you Marci and Mike! Thanks!

As we approach the last week before Christmas break and Christmas.....we wish all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas! Since we didn't do Christmas cards again this year I really want to send out a mass email with a picture and update on our lives for 2008.

If you'd like to be included, please send quick reply to thehayes05@yahoo.com and I'll get you on our list. Love you all, no matter where you are!

Justin and Samantha