The finished tree

The tree turned out gorgeous. We have mainly red ornaments on it, so it sort of has a theme. lol All my ornaments, though. We have yet to discover what happened to the ornaments Chris had growing up. :-/ Happily, though, we have some ornaments we bought together, so they aren't all just mine. lol

At the Christmas tree farm

Well, Chris and I officially have a Christmas tradition. We returned to Beckwith's Family Christmas tree Farm this year after enjoying it so much last year. We picked out the best tree on the farm, drank rather watery hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies, picked out a couple very charming ornaments, rode on the wagon through the river, and jammed the tree in the trunk of my car. All in all, a very good tradition, in my opinion. :-)

Gingerbread cookies

No electric mixer, no grater for the garlic, no cookie cutters ... no problem for us. :-)

Kitty pictures

Brothers love to share.

They also love to watch tv.

Someone found the heating vent.

Seriously, they really like tv.

And pillows.

The little black one likes to watch and copy Oreo. I think Oreo is his role model.

And every once in a while, he actually lets me hold him and purrs so sweetly.

See? Copycat.

My boyfriend the mechanic

Chris is awesome and so is his dad. There's been a sensor going off on my car for the last few weeks, saying something was wrong with the car's coolant. Chris narrowed down the problem and got to work the day after Thanksgiving. So with Dave's supervision, Chris changed the water pump and a serpentine belt on my car.

Sadly, my muffler is still hosed. I'll have to get that replaced before it'll pass inspection in December. Bleh!

Mike was working on Erin's car that day too. He had to replace all four break lines and the rotors on the front.

Thanksgiving pictures

Aunt Lynn and Mike. Chris, me, and my red hair.

Michelle and Marena. Dixie thinks she's just one of the girls.

Erin being all cozy.

Shay hanging out on Miley's bed.

62nd Annual Turkey Trot

Thanksgiving morning, Chris and I met Mike and Erin in Troy, NY so the boys could run a 5k. There were over 4000 people there, which you could tell by one look at the very nervous whippet. She actually did pretty well around so many people.

Unfortanately, Erin and I picked the wrong spot to watch everyone cross the finish line. Mainly what we saw was people puking. Yuck! And it was so crowded we didn't get to see Chris run at all. :-( But next time, at least I'll know where to stand ...

Mike shortly after he finished under 26 minutes and 30 seconds.

Part of the crowd during the national anthem.

The Little Guys

We adopted two kittens! Chris and I went to PetSmart to buy some cat food for Oreo, but ended up adopting two kitties. They are 5-month-old brothers, so we didn't want to split them up. And they were born outside and lived on bugs to stay alive for 4 months until this school teacher found and trapped them. She worked with the Cat Coalition to get them neutered and all their shots, and then she's been fostering them and taking them to PetSmart to try to get them adopted. How much does this sound like a story that would be on those ASPCA commercials? lol It's just so heartbreaking yet grasping at the possibility of hope.

Unfortunately, we only have pictures of the kitties under the bed. They are incredibly skiddish. Hell, they are flat out terrified of everything. We're working hard to gain their trust, but it's a long and not very fun journey. Chris and I have been throwing around possible names for them, but we agreed not to pick any yet since we don't really know or like them much right now. haha We really want to like them, but they are masters of keeping their distance.Today we had a weird experience. Chris and I were under the bed trying to play with them, and we thought it was going well. Chris got the black and white one purring even. He was just kind of petting and scratching the scruff on its back and it really was enjoying it. So then he tried it with the black one, and he fell over on his side and seemed to like it too. But then the black and white one tried to play with the black one. He started biting his neck and the black one just laid there. Didn't fight back or anything. Chris tried to get the black one to move and he was totally unresponsive. Didn't do a thing when Chris picked him up, either. His body was limp, his eyes wide open. You can imagine what we thought. So Chris pulled him out from under the bed and put him on his lap. He moved his head a little, so we figured out he was still alive. Chris just kept petting him and he slowly started to revive. It was unbelievable. I haven't the slightest clue as to what happened to him. If he passed out or if that's a defense mechanism, like playing dead. Or if he was actually paralyzed with fear. I dunno.

So I guess we just have to be patient and keep a close eye on them. I never would have guessed these little guys would be so much work just to get them somewhat normal. Poor kitties.

Chris's birthday presents

I mounted a huge antique wall map for Chris for his birthday and marked all the places we've been together. We have yet to hang it up, but I think it'll look really cool in the living room. I think we might have to add pins for the places we've been separately as well, though, because we don't have nearly enough to look like world travelers. haha

My new hair color

So I got a little bold and picked out a hair color named "Spicy Salsa." Yup. I just dyed it a few minutes ago, so I haven't had time to decide if I can get used to it or if it's too crazy for me. lol

I'll give it a few days and a few more pictures ... lol

Mike and Chris's Birthday

Lisa made a delicious chocolate cake for the boys with a pudding filling. Yum yum! Here, Erin brings it out to the birthday boys.
Chris and Mike opening presents, but Miley wants in on the action too.

Marena examines her arm from her unfortunate car accident earlier that night. She's ok, but the car isn't. :-/ To her left, Michelle tries to keep warm.

Erin presenting the cake. Mike seems very interested ...

Jordie comes in close to see what's going on.

Toys

Here's our new air compressor. 60 gallons. Ridiculously huge, but I'm sure we'll get some good use out of it.Below is the generator Chris and his dad built that will now be our savior if the power goes out. :-) Pretty cool, right?
And our new snow blower that Dave fixed up for us. :-)

All sorts of fun new toys to work/play with. :-)

Working on the house

Dave and Lisa came out this weekend to bring us out a snow blower and an air compressor. They also helped us out on some projects around the house. Chris and Dave got the compressor all hooked up, got the generator all ready to go in case the power goes out, insulated the attic door, and installed a programmable thermostat. I'd put up pictures of everything, but most of it is in the garage and I'm too lazy to go out there tonight. lol

Pretty pink insulation will stop that cold air from getting into the hallway and our bedroom. :-)Lisa and I did happen to find this fantastic desk at Christmas Tree Shop for only $99. :-) We had to put it together ourselves, but that's totally worth it. It has a cute hutch and a little drawer below. Chris is still getting used to it and trying to get it ergonomically situated and whatnot. lol But it looks so much better than his old plastic one.


Lisa and Dave also bought us this great lamp from Ikea. It is short enough that it doesn't smack against the sloped ceilings in our bedroom. It looks pretty stylish wearing my scarf, too, right?
I finally found the perfect spot for these little white shelves my mom got us. I mixed them in on the wall of picture frames and it breaks up all the squares nicely. Still don't have enough picture frames to fill up the wall, but you get the idea.