Five simple things

Merry 'Day after Christmas.' Hope your Christmas celebration was as great as ours. I always love when Christmas falls on a Friday and you have two more days to enjoy the celebration and good tidings. Such a great way to end a week. We are totally soaking up the long-days of Christmas in our house here and are looking forward to the New Year. This time of year we always get into the funk of the winter blues, but we found a few things to help combat those winter blues. What do you do to beat the winter blues? Hopefully a few things on this list can help you too. With that, here are the things that made this week amazing!

1.  This Holly Tree.

This tree grows near our bank and I have always been jealous of it.  It sits on a property that isn't well maintained and I've always wanted to uproot it and rescue it.  It looks amazing right now!

2.  These Moments. 

      

We've taken to more reading before bed lately and during those time, it's such a great moment to see Skylar-Braden's personality come out.  He is definitely a mini-me and I love it!  You can check out our reading list here, or check out what is new on the SNS Reading List here.

3.  This Knife Rack.

Because we live in a small house and this saves amazing amounts of space.  The one we have is here.

4.  These Photos.

Just a few photos of the neighborhood I live in.  The top one is of the Justice Center here.  It houses the police department and municipal court for the city.  The second one is a shot of downtown during the twilight hour.  I love the way both of them turned out.  Oregon has some great areas worth visiting.  These photos can also be seen on my Instagram page here.

5.  These Books.

Have you gotten into the coloring book fade yet?  I am not sure why this is so popular now, I've been coloring in coloring books since I was a kid.  I really colored a lot when I was pregnant with Skylar-Braden and even though I was on bed rest, it helped relax me during that time.  These Adult Coloring Books have a bit more mature patterns over rabbits in a thicket, or a bear having a picnic.  I ended up enjoying mine so much, I got one for my sister, my sister-in-law, and my mom.  You can snag these books here.

Extras:

•   This Star Wars movie surprise.

We told Skylar-Braden that we couldn't get tickets in time to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens and we were headed down to Eugene to do some last minute Christmas shopping instead.  I told him to dress like a Jedi Knight and maybe someone will sell us some tickets while we are there.  Little did he know, we had already purchased the tickets and the trip to Eugene was a Christmas surprise for him.  He didn't have a clue until we got to the ticket window and the lady said, go on in and have your Fandango ticket scanned.  Then I turned to him and said, "Merry Christmas, buddy."  His surprise made me tear up.  It was great and we had such a wonderful time.  We watching it in IMAX 3D and, in my opinion, that's the only way to watch a 3D movie.  The entire theater was packed with Star Wars fans too.  It was a neat thing to see so many dressed up and excited for the movie.  

  

• These pants.

• This shirt.

• And this shirt for the Mr.

• Like those clothes from Loomstate?  Here's their blog.

• Makes me think.

• These eco-gifts.

• Quilts.

• A few ideas for next season's growing.  Perennials?  Herbs?

• Picasso Head.  Create your own.

• Mukhwas as a mouth refresher or digestive aid.  Or here.  Or here.  Or here.

• These items I an swooning over.

• Ugly Christmas sweaters.

What happened this time last year?

Cutting the perfect Christmas tree-2015

One of our traditions in getting a Christmas tree is to visit a different tree farm each year.  This year we just happened to see a sign outside of town for Trantham's Tree Farm.  We saw it when we were on our way to the Oregon Garden to do some ice skating.  This tree farm wasn't big, but it was very quaint and had a lot of firs to choose from.  We went with a noble fir this year because we like to mix it up a bit from year to year with our choice.  

  

They gave us colored cups to place on top of the trees we liked and then narrow down our choice as we walked around.  Our choice this year was to get a narrow, smaller tree, so that it didn't take up a lot of space.  I will say, from the past I've always gone with a fuller tree and this year we decided to go skinnier.  It was a good choice for the amount of space we have here at the Hiatt House.  We narrowed it down to the two trees above and took about 30 minutes deciding which one we liked best.  The Mr. wanted the smaller tree, but I wanted to go tall.

  

We ended up with the smaller tree because of its shape.  I really liked how skinny it was, but the height wasn't quite what I wanted.  It looks pretty good though, given the ornaments and star bring it taller a bit.

The wetness of the ground made it a bit tough to get a good stable position to cut it.  The Mr. wasn't having too much fun with that.  What's a Christmas tree cutting without someone getting dirty, right?  Just glad it was him and not me. Ha!

I think we snagged a pretty good tree.  The Mr. is about six-foot tall, so a six-foot tree isn't all that bad.  I will push for a taller one next year, though.  :)

The Mr. looking very "Lumber-sexual" carrying our precious tree to the shaker.  

Our tree got a good shaking and then was ready to load up on top of the car.

Trantham Christmas Tree Farm is about 10 miles northeast of where we live.  It was a cut, yet small Christmas Tree Farm and they seem to have just what we needed.  If you're in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, give them a go next year.  They also carry pretty snazzy handmade wreaths, as well.

I think she looks wonderful!

Check out our Christmases before:

Christmas 2014

Christmas 2013;  And here.

Christmas 2012;  And here.

What happened this time last year?

Ice skating at the Oregon Garden #citg

It's Christmas at the Oregon Garden and with that we loaded in the car and took off toward the twinkling lights.  This year they provided the public with a taste of ice skating.  Although no one ice skating looked like a professional hockey player, or a competitive figure skater, it was loads of fun.  Even with the few bumps and bruises later.

  

The Mr. and The Bean can be see behind all of the blur.  

  

The Bean used the seal to help him stay on two feet.  He wasn't ashamed to say he needed some help on the ice.

Once he got his footing he took off!

He fell a few times, but the Mr. never fell once.  Must be his Oregon blood that kept him upright on the ice. 

  

The mini-Zamboni came out and shaved the ice and resurfaced it.  There was a lot of people ice skating and the cuts and grooves in the ice were getting pretty deep.

Both of them were exhausted when I took this picture.  They were ready for a break.

We walked around the gardens and looked at all of the Christmas lights.  The display was great this year!

We grabbed some hot chocolate and they gave it to us in a collectors' mug that read, "Christmas-In the Garden."

We loved the "Elf" reference with the narwhal.  

We ate at Creekside Grill in Silverton, afterward.  We love their sweet potato fries so much!  If you haven't heard of this place, you're really missing out on a great atmosphere and food.

We had a fun day at the Oregon Garden.  We all ended up crashing hard when we got home that evening.  Christmas in the Garden goes until January 3, 2016.  If you live in or around the Willamette Valley of Oregon, check it out!  If you bring a new, unwrapped toy your entrance fee is waved.  

What happened this time last year?