O Tannenbaum

I promise I am one of those people who firmly believe in celebrating one holiday at a time. With that being said, we did go and tag a Christmas tree this past weekend. I assumed we would be dragging out our fake, pre-lit, easy to assemble tree the day after Thanksgiving like we do every year, but after having coffee with a few of my friends and hearing every single one of them was getting a real tree, I came home to ask Tom what he thought about it and he loved the idea. We went the very next day to SweetBerry Farms to find THE tree. They handed us a pink ribbon and a tag with our last name and sent us on our way to find a tree in one of the eighty-two rows of beautiful Canaan Firs.

It was a bit overwhelming at first. I kept hearing my mom's voice in my head "remember, all of the trees will seem small out there, but they won't be in your house!" We have reallllllly low ceilings and since our living area is tiny, we couldn't go crazy. Tom proclaimed that the really tall trees were the mansion trees, and we definitely did not need one of those. The girls were running from tree to tree wanting to tie our ribbon on every single one of them, but every tree they picked was a tad too big. We finally settled on a cute, albeit far from perfect, REAL, pine-aroma-bursting, Christmas tree. Our first one.

Ella thought this little one was just right.

 And then she spotted this tree and thought it would be a perfect fit for our "mansion".

 I said "Sam show me your smile"...

 And this is the sly smile he decided to give. Love my sweet boys!

And we finally found it...in row 72.

 Our tree!

It leans quite a bit, but definitely chosen with love. ;) 

 When we are ready to bring it home, we just call up the farm and they cut it down, wrap it up and it's all ours. Can't wait to see how this all goes! Ha! Wish us luck...

Oh the COLD.

Not the dreaded flu/cough/cold. The COLD, frigid weather. I am not ready for this mentally. Or clothing wise. I don't think I have enough clothes, scarves, hats, gloves to prepare for this. And neither do my kids. How did I survive in Oklahoma? Oh yeah, I didn't leave the house. And it was hardly ever a feels-like temp of 5 degrees.  It's November, Rhode Island! Give me just a few more weeks and I promise I will accept this sort of weather behavior. (Truth be told, I love living here so much that I hate even complaining ha!)

Ella on the other hand...she's in for a rude awakening. While getting her ready for school this morning we had the following conversation:

Me: Ella, you need to put on a hat today. It's freezing out there.
Ella: I can't mom. I am wearing this pretty headband today.
Me: *giving her the "you are crazy, get a flipping hat on now" stare...
Ella: I will wear my ear muffs.

My child will choose fashion over warmth any day. But I think enough cold mornings at the bus stop might just break her.

The Details...

You know that bond? The bond between father and son? Or in our case father and son and father and daughters? It's the sweetest thing for me to see Tom and the kids interact together. He's generally pretty busy with school and other extras, that his down time with his children isn't flowing so freely this year. But when he chooses to spend it just holding Sam or playing a board game with the girls, it makes me smile. I know I'm the lucky one because I am able to spend plenty of time with our kids. I'm seeing firsthand just how quickly time flies by. I see the pants getting shorter, jackets getting smaller.  Ella standing more on the swings rather than sitting and trying to perfect her cartwheel daily. I see Madeline practicing her "cat chase mouse" ballet move across the living room, and choosing to save her half-eaten lollipop for when Ella gets home from school (yum). And Sam, well he changes daily. From sitting up, to getting teeth, to eating solids to taking his first slow, slow crawls. It's amazing how fast it all happens. And I am blessed enough to see, and hear and enjoy every bit of their day (most days!). Tom works hard for our family and I know he misses out on a lot because of his career. But I am happy he still has a sweet bond with his three babies. I just hope he relishes that time he does get to spend with them and really takes advantage of it.

"Don't just hear about the details.  Be a part of the details." My smart, wonderful friend Jen has this mantra and I hope we (as parents) never forget that. Be involved in their lives. Get down on the floor and build those giant Lego sets. Be the student when your child wants to play school. Dress the Barbies, pour some real tea in those tiny tin tea cups. Take their light-up scooter for a spin. Kick the soccer ball in the field with them. Hang from the monkey bars. I promise you won't regret it for one second. For our little ones grow up entirely too fast. And before we know it those "details" will include college graduations and wedding planning and we will be longing for those days at the parks watching our kids standing on swings and dancing through our living rooms.

Plymouth Rock

We took a little adventure to Plymouth, MA today. Nothing says Thanksgiving like the Pilgrims and the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. I can't take full credit for the idea of going there. My friend went here last weekend and I saw her pictures on Facebook and thought "how neat!" We live so close to this amazing part of our history. How could we not stop in for a quick tour?  Just in time, too because Ella is learning about the Pilgrims and Indians and Thanksgiving in school so she was excited to go. (Unlike last weekend's fall foliage bore tour).

I'll be honest. I really had no clue that Plymouth was only an hour away or so from us. I thought it would be an all day trip. Tom looked at me like I had ten heads when I asked if this was going to take a few hours to get there. I'm a geography failure. Seriously. I even had to look up where Oklahoma was on a map when we were moving there from Germany. (C'mon, I bet you don't know where it is either!) I am hoping our children are so well-traveled in life that they do not run into these geography problems. Considering Ella was building the United States puzzle at two, and clearly pointing out Oklahoma...she's already ahead of the game.

Back to our Pilgrim adventure...It was surprising to me just how interested the girls were on the Mayflower (II). They wanted to see every nook and cranny and were asking me questions about where the people slept and where they ate their food and "why do dem people wook wike dat, mom?"--(Madeline asking why there were people dressed like real Pilgrims on the boat.) They asked if Pilgrims were still alive or if were they ghosts. I didn't hear a single complaint from anyone about being bored!

Fast forward to tonight and I asked them if they had fun today seeing the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. Ella's response "it was awesome!" Madeline's response "How many more days until Christmas?"

Oh well. I tried.

 I laughed out loud when I saw that Madeline was holding this guy's hand. 

 Walking onto the Mayflower II

 Pilgrim characters were on the boat giving history lessons:)

 Ella says "That pilgrim is drinking a beer!" Hey...my girl knows her stuff.

 102 people + livestock, food, cargo...I don't know how they fit. But they all made it.

 This is 1/4 it's original size. (which was about 20,000 lbs) People were taking pieces for souvenirs back in the day! It's puny compared to what people expect to see. I'd say at most 4 ft across. The bottom of the rock is buried into the sand. (time to dig it up and show it's size!) 1620 was etched into the rock in 1880.

 They built this structure around it and you look down to see the rock which is now located about five feet below street level.

 What a beautiful place.

Afterwards, we picked up some yummy Mayflower beer brewed right there in Plymouth, and headed back to Newport to try an Italian place we have been eyeing since we moved here. It was delicious! And Sam sat in a high chair for the first time at a restaurant. My baby is getting so big!

Oh dinner.

Honestly, I hate cooking. Well, that's not entirely true. I like to cook. Just not in our super tiny, tiny, size-of-a-refrigerator box-kitchen. Our kitchen is so small that our microwave sits on top of our dryer. Yup. That's my space saving secret y'all! Anyway, last night was no different. I didn't feel like cooking so I decided to break out the pizza crusts for the girls to make their own dinner. We had pizza dough patiently waiting to be used from the milkman, too, and the Italian in Tom was just itching to toss it up in the air;)

Girl loves cheese!

 Sam was just happy with his green beans and bananas. 

Purgatory, Lizzie Borden, Orbs...

Man! What a day! We decided to take a "fall foliage" drive yesterday and well, look at the fall leaves. You would have thought I had asked Ella to rip her teeth out with pliers and no drugs. Her face in the back of the car looked like boredom times 10000000. Sam and Madeline slept. I was all "ooooohhhh" and "awwww"'n over every leaf I saw. But nobody, noooobody in my car remotely cared. Tom was just driving, humoring me. Apparently I am the only one who loves nature's way of changing seasons.

It's ok though. I enjoyed it. The kids were quiet. Really quiet actually. I might just torture the family again with a "winter wonderland" drive next time when the snow starts to pile up just for the sake of some peace.

On our drive we came across Purgatory Chasm. It is a hidden gem here. There was a small sign on the road pointing to it and having no idea of what it was, we decided to check it out. Turns out, it's this little wooded trail that leads to one of the most incredible views I have seen since living here. Formed by the eroding action of the seas over eons, it's a narrow cleft in the rock ledges. When you look over the edge, it's enough to make you dizzy! There's a big drop after these rocks that we are standing on, too. I know it seems to flow together in my pictures, but that's a cliff behind us. My pictures, or any pictures I have since seen of this place, do it any sort of justice. Simply beautiful. Nerve wracking with small children, but still absolutely worth the visit.

 He's way more daring than I am. That's the edge right there. No thank you!

 Ella dressed herself. She looks like a winter consignment sale. 

 Cute wooden bridge overlooking the chasm.

 Isn't it really beautiful? 

 We drove to Fall River, MA so I could visit a place that has haunted me since childhood. Lizzie Borden's House. You know that rhyme:

Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks.

When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41. 

Yeah, it's stuck with me since I was probably Ella's age. Anyway, Lizzie Borden killed her parents (although later acquitted of the crime)...and now the house where the murders occurred is a Bed & Breakfast. You can actually stay in her bedroom or her parent's room. I don't think I will be spending the night any time soon because my own husband wouldn't even get out of the car to take a picture. He said he doesn't mess with ghosts and took my picture from the car...parked across the street.

 

Orb above my head

 Lots of orbs in this picture. Does anyone else see the green face in the driveway??? I didn't until my mom pointed it out. And then my aunt pointed out the lady in her pjs peeking out of the second story middle window. Turns out that was the stepmom's room where she was killed. Eeeeek. Creepy. 

Totally going back with my mom in the spring though. It's only 20 miles from us and I know she will at least go inside to see the museum part. After researching the house and hearing all of the ghost stories, I don't know if I could ever spend the night.

We treated the kids to Friendly's after for a quick lunch and of course ice cream. You know...because I spent all that time torturing them with leaves and bare trees with fallen leaves and then the scary haunted house.