My girls were in our church's little nativity performance. Greta was Mary, Holly was the innkeeper, and Maeve was a lamb, whose sole job was to sit still and eat pretzels by the manger. Nailed it! I love that my girls were able to do this with their friends!

Decorating the tree this year felt really calm. I love taking the ornaments out of the box and passing them to my girls to hang up. This year, I made felt mittens (free pattern) and have ambitions to make stockings too, but to say I have my hands full is an understatement! Maeve's branch full of all her ornaments is so cute! Maeve loves the Christmas tree, but she thinks the ornaments are toys. It's a tricky distinction.

This year, for a Christmas tree, we went to Greenbluff and cut a tree down at a tree farm. I've never been to a tree farm for a Christmas tree. We had original planned to cut down a tree from a national forest, but the ranger stations aren't open on the weekends this season which means I should've mailed in early for a permit. Right before we were going to drive out of town, I double checked and we regrouped and drove to Greenbluff. It was fun to pick out a tree and see it from every angle. I'm really happy with the beauty we chose!

After hiking and before we drove into the town, we stopped at Two Jack Lake to ice skate. (Maeve stayed in the warm car with grandparents!) My girls were in heaven! They love ice skating, they love their cousins. It was a win-win scenario! And even though it was icy cold and very windy there was absolutely no complaining from my happy kiddos. It was such a great day!

When my Mom was a little girl and playing hooky from school with her Mom, she remembers coming here. Her big Bernese-Border Collie dog, Popsy and her were playing on the ice. Popsy would pounce on the places she heard bubbles and then my Mom would jump on the ice. Well, one time the ice broke and she fell in. She only got wet up to the hip on one leg fortunately (Popsy got out of there quick and didn't help). My Granny warmed Mom up by the fire, but then they had to head into town to warm up in the hot springs. My Mom says she remembers wearing my Granny's rubber boots, which were huge on her, as she walked into the hot springs. 

Isnt' it fun to have shared experiences? But I'm so glad the ice was super thick for us!