"Fun" at the Christmas tree farm

My wish came true....it snowed JUST in time for us to go accross the street to the tree farm and pick out the perfect family Christmas tree for 2010!!!! It simply wouldn't have been the Christmas spirit without snow on the ground for this occassion :-)

So this morning we bundled Miss Raya all up (first time in her snowsuit actually leaving the house! haha) and we were off down the road!



I'm sooo excited Mama...this will be fun!

 Once we got outside our house I thought I'd let her walk to the car....ya know, let her experience her first time being outside in the snow this season. Her face really says it all....

"This frickin' blows"

Then I sat her in her carseat for the trip a few feet down the road. Luckily we weren't going far b/c Raya was not exactly comfortable wearing her get-up!

Once we got there Daddy led Raya "over the river and through the woods" (actually it was a pond, but you get the idea :-P) to find that perfect tree!

So stinkin' cute!

Her little legs eventually got tired....

You may remember last year's trip to the tree farm....we had Miss Raya pose with a tree just her size!

So this year I wanted to do the same thing....you know Mama's always thinking about those cute photo-ops! Well, Miss Raya thought this was pretty much the worst idea ever and she succeeded in making this year's tree pic a doozy...




"This is humiliating Mama!"

 Then the poor thing fell....which REALLY pissed her off! :-P

At this point I decided I better find the perfect tree and FAST! ....b/c the little diva had officially decided she wanted to be a scrooge! :-) Well people, then I saw it....that perfect tree...all 7 feet of it...

Totally lovely right?!

Miss Raya approved....although at this point she approved of whatever got us out of there the fastest!

Time to pose with Daddy too!

"....I'll close my eyes and think 'there's no place like home, there's no place like home'..."

Then  I ordered my manpower to cut that bad boy down!

TIMBER!



You better not expect ME to carry that back  to the car Daddy!

 But then you know what happened when we got back to the car? Well as we waited for them to clean the tree up and package it for us they offered Miss Raya a candy cane, and suddenly Christmas tree farms were the most fun thing EVER! The child loves food....they had won her over! :-)

Yum!

Unfortunately though I turned away for 1 second and look back to find that Raya had fallen face first in the snow! When I picked her up she had snow stuck to her face and candy cane juice all over her face....with a sad tiny peice of broken cane still clutched in her sticky fist

But then Daddy used snow to clean her up and she was all better!

....but she still thought the whole experience was overrated

Mama had fun though!!!!! :-)

When we got home we decorated the tree....Miss Raya, no surprise, loved the lights!

Isn't our tree beautiful?! :-)   ....unfortunately the true beauty of all the lights cannot be captured on film :-P

Where's Raya?

So LAST year at this time Raya had just recently learned to sit unassisted. I had so much fun taking pics of her in front of the Christmas tree b/c I'd just plop her there and snap away. Ahhhhh, those were the days....



I'm realizing now that the pretty glitter "balls" on the tree in this picture are not on our current tree!
I knew I was missing something! haha...better go in the basement and find them :-)

 So this year do you think Raya would sit in front of the tree for a nice picture? OF COURSE NOT!



Looks like she's having all the fun you'd have during Christmas in prison or something :-P

 The little stinker though discovered she can now sit on the tv speaker and gaze at the tree....so then suddenly pictures by the tree were no problem!

Aren't her holiday jeans cute? :-)

So all in all another memorable Christmas tree experience! :-) If you want to re-live last years Christmas tree extravaganza journal entry you can read it here: http://rayamarie.livejournal.com/34712.html   She's grown so much in one  year!!! Can't wait to take Brielle along on next year's tree hunt....although we'll have to find a new tree farm to visit since we won't be living here anymore!

And to end, this morning I also attempted to get pictures for this year's Christmas card. Lee and I decided we weren't really up for doing a family photo...with the dogs and Raya and us it's just nearly impossible to get a good one of everyone, and the thought of trying made us tired :-P So I decided to do a little photoshoot with Raya and hope that I could come up with something salvageable!  Well I'm not going to share the actual Christmas card I ordered b/c I want people who recieve it to be a little surprised (but I will say my total was almost $70, but once I entered my glorious coupon code for writing that blog entry about Shutterfly my bill was $0!!) ....but here are some of the "reject" photos from our card attempt....

As expected she was whiny and uncooperative ...honestly, doesn't it look like she wants to punch me in this one?!

....and she didn't like my other outfit options any better either! :-P

So keep your  expectations for this year's holiday card low haha....she maintained throughout our photo session that this was pretty much the low point of her short little life thus far :-P

Merry Christmas!! :-)

...and now later Mommy and Daddy get to attend Lee's work Xmas party while Miss Raya plays at Erin's house for the night! Raya hasn't seen those twin boys forever, (and now Erin's new baby!), so I hope she behaves herself!!!!