December 1st...Count down to Christmas Begins!

This morning we found Jack hanging upside down from the lamp with our Christmas chain.  We had to move the chain because I had a feeling Austin would rip it down.  

You can see Jack poking around the bell.

This morning Chris took the boys to Hunter's basketball practice while I ran in the Jingle Bell 5k with some former students from Lynn Road.  A parent (Becky) and teacher there organized a group of 2nd-5th grade girls to have a running club and they have been running together each week for a few months to get ready for this race.  I ran with a few 5th graders and they did a great job finishing in a little over 40 minutes.  

This afternoon we went to Boyce Christmas Tree Farm just North of Raleigh.  They have a section of trees to cut down on your own or Frasier firs that are brought in from another part of NC.  http://www.boycefarms.com/farms/

Here's an Austin sized tree.

Hunter chatting with Santa.  He was just talking away telling him random things.  He even pulled out a piece of tinsel from his pocket to show him.

We have always gotten a frasier fir and the lady who ran the farm said it's your Cadillac of Christmas trees.  But in this part of NC they do not grow.  So we decided to find either a white pine or leyland cypress to cut down.  

We had one of the workers cut it down.

Hunter was watching carefully.

They shook all the loose pine needles off, made a fresh cut, bundled it up, and tied it to our car.  A 7-8 foot tree for $35 from a local Raleigh farm...not too bad.  We'll see how it does compared to the trees we normally get.

It was a beautiful, warm day today...and this evening was great.  So we ventured down to the Raleigh Winterfest downtown.  They had a tree lighting in front of where Chris works.

Hunter is into making weird faces ALL of the time. 

This is the best we could do.

We found Emily and Jay while we were there.

They have a lot of local vendors, rides for the kids, and they had a big screen playing The Polar Express.  The boys had a great time sledding.  The pictures of Hunter were just a blur.  Austin had no fear...Hunter would have never done this at two by himself.  

Austin wanted some popcorn and asked for it all night.  We finally found some and listened to this bluegrass band for a bit.

Popcorn and banjos...two of his favorite things.

I am so tired tonight after such a long, busy day.  I hope everyone sleeps in, because we'll be busy decorating the house most of tomorrow.