The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I cannot believe Christmas is next week!! I am so excited for this Christmas because Riley will be a little more aware of what's going on than last year when he was only 4 months old. Christmas is by far my favorite time of year. I love everything about it: the birth of my Savior, being with family, the smells, the food, the decorations & lights, Santa, the music, being warm & cozy on a cold winter night all snuggled up watching A Christmas Story or some other great Christmas movie. Nothing beats Christmas time in my eyes.

Growing up, my parents had a Christmas tree farm. Log Cabin Christmas Trees was the name of it. They worked year-round to get the trees in perfect shape to sell come winter. Looking back, I now know how much hard work they put into the trees, spraying & shaping them one by one on that 12 acre farm, all while keeping up full time jobs as well. But at the time, it was like magic & I always wanted to be at the farm when we were open to the public.

It was just as you could imagine a choose & cut tree farm would be like. There was a hay ride that took people back to pick out that perfect tree for their family. They had a choice to cut it themselves or my dad would help them out if they preferred. Once the tree was down, they would ride back up to the log cabin at the front where they would have their tree shaken out (dead needles) & wrapped to go on top of their car. While they were waiting we had hot chocolate & cookies for everyone to enjoy. My mom (and my sister & I if we were there) would stay in the cabin with the fire place burning, usually making wreaths from the scrap branches & greeting customers. Some years my grandfather would even dress up as Santa & entertain the kids. Just thinking about the tree farm & all that went along with it gives me chills. I'm sure having it growing up contributed to my love of Christmas! I just love it!

This past weekend we had a photo shoot to try & get a good picture for a Christmas card. I am so behind this year! Normally I already have them sent out the 1st week or so of December!

Riley has really started hamming it up for pictures. Big time. This kid knows what to do when he sees a camera! TAG says he looks like he is practicing for his career as a male model the way he automatically & constantly cheeses so big for the camera. ;0) We don't even have to jump around looking silly to get him to smile anymore. We just say "cheese" & this is what we get.

Since I was feeling a little better Sunday, we decided to go see Santa Claus after church. Last year we went to the crazy busy mall & stood in line for close to 2 hours. This year we decided not to go that route. We went to Cedar Hill Farm to see what it would be like. This was their 1st year to have Santa so we figured it wouldn't be too crowded.

We go to early church so we were out by 10:30 & needed to kill some time before they opened at 12. We ate Mexican & TAG ran in Wal-Mart to grab a few things while Riley & I sat in the car, then it was time to go see Santa!

We were trying to pump Riley up the whole way there by telling him who he was about to see & asking him what Santa says. He is getting better at it, but just says 2 "Ho Ho's". It almost sounds like his monkey sound. :0)

More cheesing on the way in the car.

We got there right as they opened the farm at 12:00 & we were the 1st ones there! We even beat Santa so they told us to go down to his cabin & he would be there shortly. We made our way down the hill & stopped for a couple pictures & about that time we heard Santa saying "HO HO HO" & his jingle bells ringing as he walked over the hill. I wish we would've gotten a picture of Riley's face when he heard him. It was priceless. He couldn't see him at the time so he couldn't figure out where it was coming from, but he was in awe looking around & listening. Then we saw him & Riley got so excited. He was laughing & acting like he couldn't wait to give him a hug.

But that wasn't the case. Not at all. Once we got inside the cabin & I sat him on his lap it was over. He did sit still for a short while & I got a few decent pictures, but then he had had enough. He never cried or screamed, just whimpered a little & squirmed to get down.

Overall, Cedar Hill Farm was a great experience. It reminded me a lot of our tree farm at Christmas with the log cabin & the hay ride back to the trees. Plus we didn't have to wait in any lines to see Santa! I'm so glad we decided to go for this experience for Riley rather than the mall. I just hope my children grow up loving Christmas as much as I do & for all the right reasons.

Christmas is next week!!!