The Great Tree Hunt

After a traumatizing tradition with Santa, we moved on to a more fun Christmas family tradition... hunting for our Christmas Tree with the Long Family! Sunday morning we all met up at our house, and in the wet foggy morning air, we headed out to the Johnson Farm here in Boulder Creek. It is absolutely beautiful, and though the prices are a bit higher than we would have liked, the scenery and atmosphere were well worth it!

As soon as their feet hit the ground, all the kids took off running. It was almost instinctual...big open space, puddles, and mud...GOOOOO! First thing, Soren marched over to a bucket of water with a frozen top and plowed his foot right through the ice! :) hahah such a boy! That kid ran harder and faster than I have ever seen! He fell about 200 billion times, was covered in mud and soaking wet, and did not care one bit! That is until we tried to clean him up or slow him down, if we just stayed out of his way, that boy was happy as a clam!









Noah had a hard time keeping up with everyone, but once he caught up, he was smiles and giggles the whole way! Uncle Nathan wasn't feelin too hot after a long night of stomach issues, but he and Sierra trekked right along with us, and one by one, we all found the perfect tree! Noah helped Papa cut down his tree and once we found our tree, he insisted on helping Daddy cut it down. That is until he saw a bird or something and took off running!

We made our way back to the general store, where there was a fire, hot chocolate, goats and bunnies, a wagon and the most beautiful old barn :) We explored each and everyone of the attractions and managed to get a group shot just before the rain started! We were all cold, wet and tired and made our way back home...

I think this is probably my favorite Christmas tradion and cant wait to discover yet another new Tree Farm next year! :)

"Na-Na"

The Saturday after retuning home from Thanksgiving, we took Noah over to Tiny Tots Boutique to meet Santa like we did last year...only I had no real hope of it actually going as well as it did last year. Noah is super friendly, knows everyone at the supermarket, waves to people as we walk down the street, but he is also a bit shy and timid when the time is right. If the person is up in his face and really vying for his attention, Noah usually buries his face in my neck. Or if the person wants to hold him and pushes it, Noah declines. And in general, if the person looks a little different or intimidating (aka, huge white beard covering your entire face, glasses, hat, gloves, boots and a fuzzy red suit), Noah will start letting out the "no" word and running in the opposite direction! As he should, I suppose. I was right in not getting my hopes up for the smiley Santa picture, but honestly, I think the crying Santa pictures are classic and glad we got one :)

When we showed to get our pictures taken, Jasper and Soren had come early and were already finished...Soren was a champ, no tears, and Jasper shed no tears but wouldn't sit on Santa's lap! Soren and D hung around so we could all eat after our pictures and the boys had a blast playing with all the toys in the botique. Then, they called our name...and we stood outside the door as another defenseless child screamed through the torture of the Santa pictures and I sang loudly, and off key, in a sad attempt to distract Noah from the shrieks coming out the door. He didn't buy it :)

Looking back, I should have walked in with Noah's back to Santa, plopped him down in the Big Man's laps and took off running before he had a chance to figure out what was going on. Instead, I tried to be sensitive, hoping that if we talked about it and waved at Santa I could simply pass him into Santa's open arms...STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! Noah was ok with the talking and waving, he even began sayin, "Na-Na" which in Noah speak is "Santa." But with every step I took the tighter Noah's grasp got and this voice got quieter and quieter. By the time we reached Santa, Noah had fully turned around, was screaming "NO!", gripping me with his feet, legs, arms, hands, and head. There was NO WAY IN HELL I was going to get the kid off of me and in a fit of laughter, I squatted down next to Santa, swooped Noah to my opposite knee and called Jason over! If we weren't laughing so hard at Noah's complete terror, we would have staged a "family cry fest" but there was no way, we were laughing too hard!

With the photographer, Uncle D and an Elf all making funny noises and gestures to get Noah to look at the camera and smile, his fear, I think, turned into confusion and he stopped crying. Until he remembered who I was sitting next to. The poor kid would lean over and look around me, and as soon as Santa was in his eye shot, the kid would lose his marbles all over again, and in turn, Jason and I would become hysterical with laughter. Eventually, we got Soren in for a pic or 2 (original hope was for the 2 babies to be on Santa's lap alone), and the torture session was over. As soon as we got about 5 feet from Santa, Noah turned around, smiled and waved at Santa! Go figure!

We collected some gifts and our pictures and headed into Downtown Campbell for some dinner. Unknowingly, we we walked right into a winter festival of some sort! The whole main street, and a few side streets were shut down and there were jump houses, a sledding hill with real snow, musicians, popcorn, ponies, and yes, even the Big Man in Red joined the party! Soren was all over the place, running and falling and Noah did his best to keep up. Dinner turned into a complete and utter melt down for Noah but on the walk back he perked right up and enjoyed all the winter shenanigans. Just as we pulled out of the parking lot, Noah discovered his nostril for the first time, and kept his fingers jammed up there for the better part of a half hour! :)

too much fun = middle
of the street meltdown

we came up on this puppet show, and little Soren took one look at those puppets and took off running. I assumed he was just bored of it and off to the next thing, but oh-no. He bolted straight to the back of the puppet studio and by the time I got there, Soren already had one leg squeezed between the partitians and was climbing in with the puppeteers! LMAO! Luckly, seeing the backstage didn't ruin the magic for him, he was front and center waving and laughing and smiling the whole show :)













and lastly, I leave you with the cutest nose picker ever....