Christmas Tree!

This year was the first year that we purchased a live Christmas tree! Daniel worked on a tree farm for several years when he was younger, but the whole thing was a new experience for me! I loved it :) Often we travel a lot over the holiday break, but with Trafton we are trying to stay home more (for the sake of his sanity and ours) and so we figured we would be around to water it. Plus, it seems like a good tradition to start with Trafton's first Christmas. We went to Ecology III in Orangeville to make our selection.

It was cold and windy and Trafton had about five layers of clothing on.

Daniel with the measuring stick. We selected a nice six-footer. Everything I looked at was huge, but Daniel kept reminding me that they are a lot bigger in the house than they are growing on the farm.

Trying to wrap my head around what size tree I should be looking for

We found it! This is the one!

Time to get to work!

Okay, I am SO from the suburbs. At first I was sorta shocked that they just gave out saws and you could just cut it down yourself! I thought it would be a lot of work and take forever. But, well, it was pretty quick and easy. (Good thing I didn't have to do that!)

Loading it onto the wagon. I even got a kick out of this. What an operation!

Ecology III Christmas Tree Farm

How tall is Trafton?

He was getting pretty cold and fussy by this point. We were having so much fun picking out the perfect tree that we were there for a while!

Gotta love the trusty Subaru, which, at ten years old, is starting to become a classic :)

I couldn't believe how wonderful the tree smelled. We picked a Fraser Fir and it was delightful. Trafton was interested in touching it, although surprisingly, he didn't try to put a branch in his mouth.

Now we've gotta decorate!

Trafton's First Gift

Daniel's cousin, Kristen, gave Trafton his first Christmas present on Thanksgiving. Trafton was very into opening it and even more excited about stuffing each piece of wrapping paper that he ripped off into his mouth. So fun!

Carefully grabbing a piece then trying to get it to his mouth before I took it away

It's a Rudolph book and stuffed animal!

Now Trafton has been enjoying stuffing Rudolph's squishy red nose into his mouth!

(especially since he got that first tooth!)

Railroad Earth

For the past several years, Daniel and I, along with any friends who make the trip, have been seeing our favorite band, Railroad Earth, at the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg, PA the on the weekend of Thanksgiving. It has been so much fun! Last year was interesting because I was pregnant and SO tired that I fell asleep during the second set of music in one of the seats. This year was especially fun, because it meant a night out while Pappy babysat the little man! Oh, it was WONDERFUL to get out for the night! Usually Daniel and I see many shows over the course of a year, but how our lives have changed. We hadn't seen these guys play a show since last Thanksgiving weekend. As always, they put on a phenomenal show:)

So happy to spend the evening dancing!

Railroad Earth with new bass player Andrew Altman

Oh my - Todd is playing an electric guitar! Something I haven't seen in the last ten years of watching Todd Sheaffer play music!

Rich, Daniel and Scott - the usual show-going crew!

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Tooth!

Friday evening we discovered a little tooth poking through the bottom of Trafton's gums! How exciting :) The family was relaxing in the living room and Trafton was playing like usual putting everything possible into his mouth. He leaned over to grab my fingers (favorite chew toy of his) and I felt a little sharpness in there! It happened quick - I've been on the lookout for teeth lately and didn't notice any redness or whiteness on his gums at all. All the sudden - here's a tooth :)

Picking out Pappy's Christmas Tree

During our Thanksgiving weekend stay at Daniel's father's house, we took a trip to the tree farm to pick out a Christmas tree. I have never tagged a tree before, so it was a totally new experience for me. This year Daniel and I are getting a real tree for our house for the first time - which means we get to go to another tree farm and do this again for ourselves - so exciting :)

Checking out all the spots in the fading afternoon sun

Pappy has his red ribbon for tagging ready to go!

This one is perfect!

Trafton in the middle of the action

This is the one - all tagged!

On the front steps of the tree farm house

Thanksgiving Dinner

This year Aunt Sharon cooked her last dinner for the extended Beyer clan at her New York home. The feast was excellent as always! We were a little concerned at how Trafton would do with the whole event. He doesn't have a great history of good behavior at parties; it seems he gets overstimulated and tired out so quickly, then he just fusses endlessly. However, Trafton was wonderful! He took a nap in his pack-n-play right on schedule and the only time that he got very upset was when Jonathan woke him up (accidentally . . . ) about five minutes before we were going to sit down to eat.

Aunt Sharon, the chef

With Uncle Jonathan right after he woke Trafton up by peeking in on him taking a nap.

The Feast!

Trafton joined us at the table for some sweet potatoes.

Checking out Uncle Mike's dessert

At our corner of the table

With cousin Kristen

and cousin Kevin

and second cousins Michael and Justin

and Uncle Don

Getting ready to head outside for our trip back to New Jersey, but first saying goodbye to Aunt Sharon

A little happier now with Uncle Jon

With Uncle Don and Melissa

Belly Dancing

What better way to celebrate baby weight loss than to take a belly dancing lesson with the girls?!

Last Saturday, we got together for one of our girls only adventures. It was a blast! Tara planned this one and set it all up with Sara at the Open Your Eyes to Dream studio in Bloomsburg. Our instructor, Chrys, was amazing and so knowledgeable about the dance. She gave us a brief history of the fascinating art and then taught us some basic moves which we put together in various dances that we did. It was a truly wonderful expression of body-loving, non-judging woman-ly-ness.

Afterwards, we were planning to have a scrumptious dinner at Bloomin' Thai, but they weren't yet open when we finished, so we opted for the Indian restaurant in town, Sakuntala. Mmmmm, it was so delicious. I had to run home real quick and feed my little bambino before dinner, since he refuses the bottle and doesn't eat enough solid foods to keep him going. My sweet lovely husband did baby duty thoroughout the day to allow me to have such a wonderful day with the gals :) It all worked out really well because I did baby duty late that night so Daniel could go see Cabinet play at Harry's.

Me, Jenny, Sara, Tara, Morgan, and Jessica posing before we started the lesson. Chrys brought some coin belts for hip-shaking jingling and other scarves and fun things for us to wear!

I think I can speak for most of us when I say we had to pay close attention to the instruction since none of us have a lot of background in belly dancing :) There were some challenging moves for me - but I'll admit to being fairly uncoordinated.


Working the classic shimmy!

The lesson ended with Chrys asking each of us to take a turn dancing in front of the group. She explained that although we may not want to do that, we were surrounded by the most supportive group of women, our friends, and that no one was here to judge. It was SO fun!

Jessica and I showing off our curves!

Group shot in the funky OYETD studio after we were all finished