I am signing off here until we return from Ethiopia with our new baby girl. It's just been a bit too crazy around here for me to try to keep up with this blog when there is so much going on here. I will only be posting there for a few more weeks then I will come back to this blog to start recording the adventures of our brand new family. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year...see you in mid-January 2009.

Yesterday we ventured into the Pike National Forrest to find the perfect Christmas tree to grace our living room. My parents came along to get their tree too they found it pretty much right away. It took us a bit longer to find our tree...it turned into quite the excursion. It took us over two hours of searching in snow and down steep hills. Despite being wet and cold, we had a lot of fun. It made me wonder why we don't go on little winter hikes ever. There was something just magical about the forest covered with a blanket of snow. While Andy was scoping out the perfect tree, Blake and I looked for snow fairies in old stumps and found treasures that we left for the fairies to find when they came back to their snowy home.
We finally found a cute little tree that reminds me of a larger version of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. We decorated it last night and now our house smells like Christmas. It gets me into the holiday mood.

This online holiday radio also gets me in the Christmas spirit...I love it

snow, hot chocolate and chocolate cookies for breakfast

Weather prediction is not the easiest in Colorado...especially not this year. We have had so many warm days lately that I thought winter would never come! We finally got our real first snow on Saturday. The trees were completely covered and our windows iced over when we woke up. We probably got between 8 and 12 inches of snow. Normally I am not so thrilled about the snow (unlike someone)...but this year it came so late, that I was so excited about it...mainly because it meant I could finally wear my new boots. We braved the cold on Sunday and went sledding with some friends.
The recent cold weather has made me want to make all kinds of holiday goodies...chocolate covered pretzels, cinnamon rolls, toffee, and all sorts of cookies. I made Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies last week and have been enjoying them and a cup of hot chocolate for breakfast the past few mornings (the breakfast of champions)...it's ok to eat cookies and coco for breakfast in December...right?