It's starting to feel like Christmas..........

A quote from my Farmer:  "It just doesn't feel like Christmas until you tromp through the woods, murder a tree, take it home, stand it up in your house, and pretend that it is still alive."  This past week, we murdered our tree, so now it feels like Christmas.
My Farmer has been commenting for the last couple of years that we should just buy a fake tree, it would be much easier.  This year I told him I was OK with the idea of a fake tree.  (This is were the reverse psychology comes in.)  So every other day or so I would say, "should I go buy a fake tree?".  He would just shrug his shoulders and walk off.  Then the last time I said it, he said "well, neither one of us have ever had a fake tree for Christmas".  I stated that now that the kids are grown up and on their own, maybe it was time for a change.  That did it.  The next day we went out and murdered our tree.
My Farmer tries to be a scrooge at Christmas, but it really just isn't in him.  He really loves it.  We have had many wonderful "memorable" Christmas' together.  And a big part has always been getting the Christmas tree.  I grew up with nice Christmas trees, but my Farmer's family always had huge trees for Christmas.  So from the start, my Farmer has always gotten huge trees for us.  Which totally thrilled me.  When we moved into this smaller house, the trees had to get smaller, and I was totally OK with that.  This year, however, the tree we got is a little "full".  It takes up a lot of space, in our little living room.  But, once again, I'm OK with that, it's all a part of Christmas.  You have to be careful moving around the furniture that has been scrunched together to make room the tree, and gatherings happen in real close quarters, which we just consider important "bonding" time.
As I ponder my Farmers quote, I wasn't sure about the "pretend it's still alive" part (I know it's not alive, silly).  But as I look at our tree twinkling with lights, adorn with ornaments collected from years past, it really does seem to sing out  "Believe! I am Alive".  And if you think about it, is that what the spirit of Christmas is all about? 

We, here on the farm, are believing and wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas.

Seven Layer Cookies

This recipe is so easy and so yummy!  Give it a try...........
Seven Layer Cookies 
2/3 cup margarine or butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup coconut
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup chopped nuts
Melt margarine in 9x13 pan.  Cover with cracker crumbs.  Add remaining ingredients in layers in order as listed above.  Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.  cool and cut.

 Enjoy!

Thanksgiving week

Wow, time has been flying once again.  It's been almost 2 weeks since I sat down to blog.  Not much excitement going on so I thought I would just show what my Thanksgiving week was like.  We hosted my Farmers family this year for the holiday, which meant I had to clean house.  And as you know, this is my least favorite chore.  I think finding the time to clean is a chore in itself.  To be honest, it might not be so much as finding the time to clean as finding the want to clean. But anyways, my week went like this......

Monday.....Took an old cow down to the sale, which is a three hour drive one way.  We left early in the morning, and got back at feeding time, just as it was getting dark.  No cleaning got done.
Tuesday......I gave my Farmer specific instructions not to bother me, I was cleaning house.  And I did......kind of........2 rooms anyhow.
Wednesday.......The one dry day we were suppose to have so we decided it was the day to work the calves.  We were done early afternoon, so I had a little time to clean house, after I ran to town for that last minute shopping. (well, actually, I took my mom with me and we went out for coffee, but don't tell)
Thursday......Turkey Day!  I did manage to finish knocking down the cobwebs in the house the night before.  But after everyone arrived, I'm not sure anyone noticed if the house was clean or not.  We had a wonderful meal and ended the evening by watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which has become a family tradition.
Friday......Black Friday!  Of course we had to hit the stores at 7:30!  Black Friday shopping in our town, evidently, does not start real early.  The one store, besides the groceries stores, that was open that early, only had one car in the parking lot and I think it belonged to an employee.  So there was no getting run over or getting zapped with a stun gun here.  Then we went to a coffee shop and had to wait until 10 o'clock for any other stores to open.  We decided we were hungry and just went home.  Then that afternoon we went Christmas tree hunting.  It was such a great time, and it was such a beautiful day to be up in the mountains.  We ended the evening with a huge bon fire.  And I mean HUGE!!!  We had been stock piling all the tree limbs from last springs cleaning (and through out the summer) and lite it off.  It was great!
Saturday......Small business day.  Yep, had to go shopping again to support the small businesses.  We would have done this on Friday, but they weren't open early in the morning so we had to go back.
Sunday......Everyone left, so I slept.  It was much needed, believe me.  My Farmer worked, but that was his choice.  (He got his nap in during Saturdays shopping.)  My choice was to sleep.  I think I deserved it.  That's what I told myself anyhow.
So that pretty much sums up my holiday week.  Busy, but great fun.  I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving too! I thought I would end with a picture of our fire.  It was pretty awesome.  If you look real close, you can see people in the back ground.....way back.  It was putting off some pretty good heat.