Catching up on Christmas

For the first time in 3 years we were able to go home to my parents house for Christmas.  It was fun to get to see family and spend some time with my parents.  Mom and Dad had a great time giggling with Caleb.  We of course loved watching him get fussed over and spoiled.

My parents have a cabin on 10 acres of land in the Lincoln National Forest and that is where we have always gotten our Christmas trees from.  Needless to say our trees have never looked like those at the tree lot.  When I was little mom decided that she wanted to be able to have Blue Spruce Christmas trees like she had when she was growing up.  Well Blue Spruce don't grow native in Southern New Mexico, so she got saplings from the Forest Service and we planted them all over the mountain.  This of course means that for the next few summers we spent lots of time hauling buckets and hoses all over the mountain.  After about 10 years mom was finally able to harvest her first blue spruce Christmas Tree.  Mom has always been a fanatic about Christmas. Multiple Christmas trees, nativities on every flat surface, and lights and garland galore.  This year mom's Christmas tree was a long needle pine, with flocking and white lights on it.  She had placed cardinal ornaments all over it.  It turned out really pretty and artistic.