christmas tree expedition

 we walked all through the christmas tree farm today looking for a concolor or white fir tree. we almost chose a douglas fir which we've had several times (they're so wonderfully full and round and fat) but morgana finally found two of them in the exact spot where we found one about three years ago.

 the farm is filled with frasier firs and blue spruce and only two white firs!

 but we found them . . 

it was cold enough that we needed to warm our hands by the fire . . (these fingerless gloves are all made with yarn from sturbridge and are a sturbridge pattern).

we had cheese sandwiches on leftover lussekat buns and hot chocolate that morgana had made. (the santa is morgana's leftover st. nicholas chocolate.)

at about 3 pm the oxen (bud and nick!) began to moo and we knew it was time to get back on the road for home.

 morgana worked on making a new wreath for the door (forgot this pic . . will have to take one tomorrow). it was nice to pick out leftover boughs. they charge so much here in the city for them.

 we had done a lot of cleaning and moving of bookshelves before we left. it was nice to come home and move the tree right into place.

now it really feels like christmas.

the girls had fun decorating with lights,

 and helped with laundry and ironing while i made dinner which was a recipe from the red wall cookbook: hot root soup with shrimp, which translates as potato and leek soup with shrimp and curry. it was nice to have hot soup on such a cold day. greg and chanda went to sleep earlier than morgana and i. we stayed up late watching it's a wonderful life.