My Christmas Miracle!!

Are you kidding me! What a huge relief this Christmas! Gone-for now, are the days of filling up my "Lean, Mean, Green Machine" at $100 a pop! Today I filled up at Smith's, used my FreshValues discount and paid $1.30/gallon. For a grand total of $31! What a savings! What am I going to do with my extra cash? Are you kidding? Mama's gettin' a new pair of shoes!
BTW, I did see on the news that our Smith's has the lowest price on gas right now state wide! Take advantage! Use your FreshValues card and get it while the gettin's good!

Tah-Dah!

And here she is!!! Somewhere between Charlie Brown and Clark Griswald...The BRAKEY FAMILY CHRISTMAS TREE!




It wouldn't be complete without my newest ornaments! I bought these last year because I couldn't resist....they are after all, ALL MY FAVORITES!

A Very "Griswald" Christmas!

This year we thought, "Hey, Clark Griswald was on to something! Let's cut down our own tree!" Our good friends, the Hortins invited us up to their house in Hoytsville Friday night and then early Saturday morning we headed out to cut down our tree. We spent the night playing games and watching "Elf"-I love that show! Here's a few pics of our Christmas fun!

>

Kaiti figured out the lower portion of "Rhythm and Soul" at least I think that's what it's called. I just remember playing it all the time with my sister growing up so it was a lot of fun to play it with Kaiti!








Yes, I made those pancakes! I didn't make the batter, but I can flip them like nobody's business! It's probably one of my few cooking skills!



This should have been our first clue! Just as we were coming up on the lodge at Christmas Meadows to purchase our permit, we ran into a HUGE accident. I have never seen black ice before, but this was definately it! Cars were all over the place. There was a motor home that looked like it was just about to tip over, car pieces everywhere. It was a little scary.





Trees are very deceiving before they are cut down! This is our tree that I swear angels sang, "PICK THIS ONE!" It's a little, well, "Charlie Brown" if you ask me. But we sure had fun!






Max and I needed to defrost, so we took this picture of ourselves trying to be in the Christmas spirit!



Not sure why he felt like he should lay down next to it. All I could think of was this was our first "kill"!

What we'll do different next year!

There is, we decided a great skill in cutting down your own Christmas tree. Not all trees should be considered worthy! Here's some tips, just in case you decide that a "Griswald Christmas" sounds fun!

1. SCOUT OUT THE TREE! We couldn't figure out why other people were leaving with such beatiful trees. Where were they finding them? 'Cause we weren't seeing them! We figure they must have camped up there at Christmas Meadows in the Uintahs this summer and "marked" their tree.

2. Snow boots are REQUIRED! My feet were frozen. Kaiti refused to buy snow boots (that's a whole other story) and since I'm a nice mom, I let her wear mine. Instead I wore some, umm, "fashion forward" boots that were not at all warm and didn't offer and hiking help!

3. Two-way radios save lives! There is no cell service up there! On the way back home, our Expedition was stuck in 4-wheel drive low. If your not sure why that's a problem, don't worry....here's a little education! You can only drive about 20 mph in 4 wheel drive low. After a prayer or two (actually Max and Jaxon were arguing about how many times we prayed) we were finally able to get it into regular drive mode, but not before Shawn and Raeshel left us in the dust! They were half way home before they realized we weren't behind them. So they started back to find us and we were finally within two-way radio distance to get their attention!

4. We didn't have them, but chains would have been nice. Lots of black ice!

5. XANAX or some other such drug!!!! I don't really travel well so perhaps you wouldn't need this, but I would have given my right eye for one! I was waaaay too stressed!

6. Pick a tree with large, strong branches. While the tree we picked had a great shape, it's pretty wimpy and can't hold up any ornaments.