It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I travelled to my parents over the weekend to visit and help decorate our house and tree (my favorite things to do at Christmas) and I had the greatest time :) We went to a Christmas tree farm where we picked and then cut down our own tree and hauled it back home on top of my moms van. It was freeezzzing so we all said from the start my moms amount of time she had to pick out the "perfect tree" was very limited. We usually walk around for almost an hour but this year she actually spotted the tree she wanted while still in the nice warm car as we drove up the driveway. The tree farm was just darling and the owners were so friendly, as were their sheep! We brought the tree home, let it settle overnight in the garage and then Sunday morning we were up bright and early turning our normal surroundings into a beautiful winter wonderland. I took a million pictures, but I'll share just a few of my favorite things. (The quality is so lame because they were taken on my Iphone. Darn you camera battery for being lost!)

We all took turns at attempting to cut it down, but with three girls (I probably cut through it the most considering my sister is eleven and my mom had stitches in her stomach) my dad had to do most of it himself.

Cut down and carried to the barn on one of their tractors

One of the several dogs that were wandering throughout all the trees

A classic truck stored away in the barn, perfect as decoration if you ask me.

Can you spot the guinea hens? (Which were very loud and obnoxious to be honest)

Tied securely with about a million ropes to the top of the van

I believe their names were Molly, Maggie and Mocha

They gave me some food to hand feed the sheep and Maggie was more than friendly towards me after the first handful.

At home decorating now :)

Every year we buy my mom an additional building or piece for her village, but there is no room on top of the tv armoire for all of them so my dad separated them into neighboring villages. At night the glow from all the light buildings is just perfect.

Just a fraction of my mom's Christmas cookbooks, which she leaves out all year long

Some of my Grandma's famous (at least to me) homemade chex mix

We also buy my Mom a new Clothtique Santa every year and this is last years, also my favorite of them all, "The Cat's Out Of The Bag."

The tree all meticulously and beautifully decorated.

Can you believe my Mom said no fat tree this year? That looks pretty dang round to me ;)

I absolutely can't wait until there is more snow on the ground and presents under the tree!