Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

We went to Whitfill Nursery for our Christmas tree. Andrew immediately found the tree he wanted and claimed it as ours. Of course, we insisted we keep looking. "You don't want to take the first one you see," I told him. We looked for 20 minutes and didn't find anything else, so we went back to Andrew's tree and grabbed it.


Andrew helped a lot getting the decorations on the tree. He was excited and adamant about making some popcorn tinsel but unfortunately he has failed to actually put that into action!
Bob and I combined our ornaments for the first time. We have...umm...a small selection. Gosh for so long I had only a tiny little tree; most of the ornaments I had were really cheap and small. We had bought a few ornaments together on our travels and I had secretly ordered two ornaments from etsy.com, representing our travels this summer. I got an Edelweiss ornament and a glass spoon with a drawing of the Eiffel Tower. They look cute.
And, I'm clever! You see, I contacted Bob's mom weeks ago and asked about getting some of the ornaments that were on his tree as a kid. She sent four ornaments and I got to surprise Bob with them while we were going through the ornaments. He's a sucker for things of his past.

Here is our tree, "pre-trimming":
And of course, smiley Andrew walking through the tree farm:

Much better than the Fockers

After a year and half, Bob finally decided to introduce me to his family. We flew to Michigan early Sunday morning and stayed in the Westin in the Detroit airport. We got there around 4pm and were really excited that we didn't even have to leave the airport to get to our hotel. Lisa and Mary, Bob's sister and partner, respectively, picked us up at the hotel and we went to a small little suburb for dinner. They had us laughing the entire time. It was so nice to be around such funny, happy people.

The next day we headed out to Alpena, Michigan....four hours north of Detroit, to meet Bob's parents, Rex and Ruth Ann. As we drove to Lisa's office on our way out, we went past Eight Mile Road. I admit, I was a little excited to be so close to his hometown--and I'm not even a fan! The ride to Alpena was fairly uneventful but Bob and I always have fun on road trips. Especially when there is SIRIUS radio! We found some great tunes and even unlocked what became Andrew's favorite--the comedy channel! Fortunately, the "clean" comedy was much funnier than the raunchier comedy, so we all enjoyed it.

I've gotta say, meeting Bob's parents was a joy. They are so sweet, and of course I'm fond of the fact that Bob's mom was an English teacher and then a librarian. She made a pot roast with lots of fresh vegetables from their garden. It was great. Made me miss my mom and grandmother. We visited a shipwreck museum and then a lighthouse.

We were at the shore of Lake Michigan and Lisa showed Andrew how to search for Petoskey stones. Our trip was short but we drew names for Christmas and I got invited to participate this year. (I'm secretly STOKED about that!)

We had a really good time. Mr. and Mrs. Spurlock were sweet and kind; I just felt...at home.

I'm attaching a few pictures from our trip.