Christmas season is tradition season.

We don't have a lot of traditions in our little family yet. A few for birthdays and really just one for Christmas.

Every year since we have been married we go to Tannenbaum Farms to cut down a Christmas tree. Usually we go the weekend after Thanksgiving because we are always out of town Thanksgiving weekend. Which means the trees are already a bit picked over, but that just adds to the fun.

This year we bundled Audrey up in fleece lined tights, pants, three shirts, a coat, hat, mittens, and boots. She seemed to be pretty toasty, also it was pretty warm and the ground was dry. You may recall that we did not do so well in this department last year. Yay for learning lessons.

Audrey enjoyed the wagon ride out to the tree fields. She didn't stop talking the whole way. She also really enjoyed Ollie the reindeer. We got to watch him eat an apple which she thought was pretty much the coolest thing ever. "He picks it up and eats it." "Look it mama, he picks it up!" We visited Ollie twice, before we cut our tree and after while waiting for the wagon back. The second visit she sat down right next to the pen and said "I'm going to sit here and watch." Animal lover that one.

The main event, of course, was picking and cutting a tree. We had to walk for what seemed like forever to me, but was in reality a very short distance, to get to the cutting fields. But I made it both ways. Victory!

We let Audrey help pick our little tree. She found one she liked that was just the right size for our smallish living room.

She even helped dad cut it down.

 

Which means she talked to him, poked him, and stood over him the whole time he was cutting.

  

 

He did manage to avoid having the tree fall on her so I think everyone won in the cutting department.

She also enjoyed holding the saw, though she was not so good at holding the handle.

After we got done with the tree we stopped in to see Santa. Audrey was not at all interested in talking to or approaching him until she saw he had candy. Good lesson there. Strangers are totally cool if they give you candy. Either way I got a quick picture of her Santa interaction and we called our day of tradition a success.

 

Audrey also helped put the ornaments on the tree. She loves the ornaments. She loves to point at them and say "look it, a star, look it Olaf, look it a monkey!" etc. etc. So far she has been really good about looking with her eyes, and Lincoln hasn't even climbed the tree once. We'll see how long that lasts.

Quick twin update: everything looks great! Both boys were around 4 pounds at our ultrasound two weeks ago and my body is holding up pretty darn well. We were even given the go ahead to go enjoy Christmas with my family as long as nothing changes for me between now and then. Thank you boys for your "concordant growth," as they say, and thank you body for holding up so far. Less than 2 months to go!