I get a free Christmas Tree at my work- it's one of the perks of working for the Forest Society, since we own a working xmas tree farm in Bethlehem, NH. But...you have to order it, and I completely forgot this year. So found ourselves treeless last weekend, just when we had some perfect downtime to decorate and get into the spirit of the season a little. Luckily, Andy's work came through. His boss's husband's family has a small Christmas Tree operation here in New London, and they put us on the list to pick out a tree. Since they stopped planting new trees at Elephant Rock Farm in the early 2000's, they only plan to do pick-your-own tree for a few more years. Though there weren't thousands of trees, there were plenty of beautiful fraser and balsam firs, and the view alone was so worth the trip! We got a great fraser fir, a tractor ride, and plenty of free greens for a wreath too.
Further ramping up the holiday spirit, we spent an evening at the McVrankens watching Christmas specials in our PJs. The first viewing was The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, a timeless classic if there ever was one. Before the show, the kids acted out the scene where the grinch cleans out Whoville of toys... they tiptoed around filling garbage bags with Molly's stuffies while the adults (whos) pretended to sleep. Those nasty little grinches showed no inclination to give back our stuffies after we woke up, however, so we just did the most logical thing and pressed play on the VCR (that's right, V-C-R). Following the Grinch was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the one with Hermey the dentist-elf and the abominable snowman. I hadn't seen it in at least 15 years, so it was fun to watch this 1960s classic from the perspective of the hyper-PC present... it's so full of bullying, gender stereotypes, and discrimination against those with disabilities that it'd never be made today, but as expected the kids loved every minute.
Other weekend activities included a hike to Clarke Lookout to take advantage of the amazingly sunny and mild weather, and a minor league hockey game for Aiden and Andy. Aiden's friend John took a few of his friends to see a Manchester Monarch's game for his birthday, and they had front-row seats to watch the action. Aiden came home screaming "Lets Go Monarchs! One, Two...One-Two-Three!" and hasn't stopped since. To say he loved going to the game would be a definite understatement. I think we'll have to try it out sometime this winter as a family and see whether Haley can get into hockey too.
Let's Go Monarchs!
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