All I want for Christmas...

What a festive weekend the Ribclan had! It was truly the best weekend we've had at home in a long time, especially all together. First off, ribB and I got out for a date Friday night! The kids were excited to have their favorite babysitter, Anne, over to play and we were thrilled to go out on a Friday night and spend time together during dinner hours. We had a blast. We went to a great German restaurant in town, which was the perfect spot to be during the cold winter night. We had a lot of fun remembering back to our days in Madison, and we decided "we should have gone out more!". After dinner we were pretty stuffed, so we did some holiday shopping and headed home. We had fun talking with Anne before she left and got a big kick out of her stories from the night. She is so great with our kids and truly seems to enjoy them both...we are very lucky and dread the day she graduates from college.

Saturday was one of those days I'll remember forever. On the suggestion of my co-worker Heather, we thought we'd try out a local tree farm for this year's tree. As it turns out, this place is INCREDIBLE! I can't say enough good things about St. Croix Valley Tree Farm...the covered wagon ride with blankets and peanuts, the well organized system out in the tree fields (complete with saws and tarps to drag your tree to the staff to bundle the tree), the warming shed full of balsalm pines (I've never smelled so much pine at once--it was beautiful!), the big barn where staff shook the tree and did final preps, the kids' play area (complete with the 3 little pigs houses, and the straw one was set up for the kids to climb on and go down into through wood-frame tunnels), the freshly made hot chocolate and donuts (which we gobbled up in our truck)...it was perfection. We all had a blast for the 2 hours we were there. On an interesting side note, my great grandmother's player piano is at this tree farm...and I didn't know it! I remember the nice family who bought it at my grandparent's auction (and told us they would use at their tree farm), but I didn't realize it was at this farm. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see it this day as I was busy with the kids as Brett paid for and shuttled our tree to our truck. Definitely next year, though! As one would suspect, the kids were sufficiently worn out after the fun. Little B totally conked out on the drive home and Kdee was pretty mellow for the rest of the day.

After we decorated and celebrated at home with cider (and a few phrases like "no! don't touch that", "no, no, no!" and "oh, no, you broke this ornament!")we chilled out a bit. For me, I got to go out with my friend, Susan, whom I haven't had the chance to hang out with much lately. We had a great time catching up and shutting down a local restaurant (ok, it was only 10:30pm, but we were proud of ourselves).

Sunday was all about playing at home and prepping for the first annual "Ribclan Home Thanksgiving" feast. One of my big interests and hobbies is cooking and baking, so I really wanted to get some practice (and leftovers!)on the great American meal. It had been a few years since my last turkey dinner, and overall, this one turned out well. My newest adventure in cooking was brining the turkey and overall it wasn't too hard--whew.There wasn't anything fancy--just your basics like turkey, corn casserole/pudding, green bean casserole, Grandma L's stuffing, cranberries, mashed potatoes and gravy...all the usuals. Kdee's favorite was the corn, little B's the cranberries (surprisingly!). ribB and me--well, we liked it all. ribB made a nice fire and we ate at our dining room table--it was a good time!

In between the cooking, I got out for a couple of hours to help my mom with her Christmas shopping--it was a good break and a nice chance to have some time together.

Well, here we are at the start of the week...as usual, it's proving to be a busy work week for ribB and myself. For Kdee and little B, well life is always busy. Kdee is working on the 2 front teeth that are actually coming in from Christmas (as well as some molars--yowch!) and little B is still in love with his "new" bed (he comes home asking for it!). He continues to talk up a storm and was quick to say "chocolate milk" and "Christmas tree" during this weekend's festivities.

Pictures: Kdee and ribB size up our tree; Kdee and ribB cutting down our tree; little B "cutting" down trees with the saw blade "sleeve"; the bundled up family in front of our newly cut down tree; Kdee on top of the straw house; hot cocoa and freshly made donuts for the cold crew!