December Rewind Part Deux

In an effort to knock out as much of December 2013 as I can before 2014 arrives, I give you:

...Part deux (that's "two" for all you non french speakers out there)

Check out Part Un here

One of the most feverish debates of the holiday season is your Christmas tree:

Real or fake?

In the Townsend household it's really not a debate. Real tree's the way to be.

All day errry day. If it were up to Nate however, it'd be a fake tree. ...Good thing it's not up to him. We took it a step further this year and instead of opting for just a real tree, we (and when I say "we" I really mean me) decided to actually go cut one down from the forest.

I dubbed it:

Operation Townsend Tree Acquisition

In order to successfully complete this mission you'll need a few items:

1.) Security clearance from the government
i.e. a permit from the Forest Service

2.) A topography report
i.e. a map detailing where Christmas tree cutting is permitted
...provided by yours truly, the Forest Service 

3.) Special intelligence
i.e. what species of trees are permitted to be taken

4.) Dogs, to track the scent of your desired Christmas tree

Just kidding, I don't think that's really a thing.

We just brought ours so they could have a fun day. 

After walking...and walking...and walking, and seeing nothing but Ponderosa Pines, we finally stumbled on this beaut of a Spruce tree. Seemingly the only one in the entire Sitgreaves National Forest.

And since Ponderosa's aren't very Christmas tree-like, we didn't hesitate in taking the axe to the Spruce.
And when I saw "we" I really mean Nate.
And when I say axe I really mean hand saw.
Cause we...er Nate, was sans power tools.

If you looked up the word "manly" in the dictionary, you'd see a picture of Nate cutting down a tree in the Forest and hauling it out on his shoulder.
Kind of like you see above.

Manly men for the win.

Anywho, to make a long story short, you saw the before, now here's the after:

It's crooked, and really bushy on the bottom, and too big for our living room, but I don't even care cause we searched, and chopped, and transported it all by ourselves.
And when I say "ourselves" I really mean mostly Nate.
I mean, I helped with the searching, but he did all the chopping...and all the other hard work involved.

Real trees for the win.

Operation Townsend Tree Acquisition was a success.

December Rewind Part Un

Hey guys.

It's me. Carissa.

You may not remember me, since I basically haven't been around for the whole month of December.

...And on that note, I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your guys' well wishes and support on my last post (technically I guess it'd be the post before last, but who's really counting?)

The blogging community and blog friends are some of the best support and encouragement a girl can find, am I right?! So thank you to everyone who reached out, 

it really makes me feel nice and warm and fuzzy inside (insert smiley face emoji with hearts in its eyes here).

Sometimes crappy things happen and all your bloggy ju-ju is gone, and then sometimes you have meaningful conversations with the right people and you feel better and you feel things are moving forward, and suddenly you also feel your bloggy ju-ju start to come back. 

And that's where I'm at.

That said, I'm going to try and cram a months worth of action into a couple days since the new year is right around the corner (say whaaaat?!).

Ladies and gentleman, I bring you:

...Part Un (that's "one" for all you non french speakers out there)

Earlier in the month my parents, and Nate and I went to the Scottsdale Princess Resort for their annual Christmas at the Princess celebrations. It was lovely, and beautiful, and Christmas-y, and I for one, enjoyed pretending like I'm rich enough to hang out at the Princess on the reg.

Maybe someday.

We went for the ice skating since, last year we tried out the rink at City Skate in downtown Phoenix and wanted a change of scenery this year.

We got both a change of scenery and a change of heart in that my mom decided she would actually try ice skating this year.

Breaking news: she survived!

Granted, she clung to the railing for a good part of the night, but this Michigander sure got the hang of it by the end of the night.

In fact, we voted, and by unanimous decision (well except for my dad), determined that she was actually better than my dad, who skated last year.

He'll probably actually disagree with that, but he paid for dinner so we didn't protest too much.

Speaking of dinner...

after we finished ice skating we enjoyed some Mexican food (and drink(s)!) outside at one of the resort restaurants with our own fire pit thing-y with marbles instead of charcoal...or whatever else you use for a contained fire.

You know things are getting fancy when your fire has marbles in it. 

That, and when your dinner comes it's the size of an appetizer.

Why, the more expensive the restaurant the more chincy (sp?) the portions??

Me no likey.

...the portions, not the food. Or drinks. Me likey the drinks.

After dinner we walked around the resort and looked at all their Christmas lights on display, watched a humongous, flashing, musical Christmas tree light up to Christmas music, and enjoyed a few 

more cocktails.

Or hot chocolate and Bailey's.

Or both.  

After we finished enjoying all the Christmas-y goodness of the resort we stopped and looked at Christmas lights on the way home...of which I only took one picture:

Buuuut I'm pretty sure that's the only picture we need right??

I have Christmas tree hunting, Christmas day, and other miscellaneous December-ness coming, so don't touch that remote!

...kidding, this isn't television. Or a cheesy 90's infomercial. 

If I was really concerned I suppose I could say, don't touch that mouse! Or track pad! 

But I'm really not that concerned.

This entire paragraph really, was uncalled for.

Sometimes I have a hard time ending blog posts, and I feel like that's becoming obvious right now.

Sooooo, bye!

Merry Christmas

Love, the Townsends

Christmas: Eve of and Day of

It's been about a week since Christmas/Christmas Eve, and per the usual, it's just now making it to the blog. Just in case you haven't noticed this will be the second post in one day, because I feel like I need to get 2012 stuff on the blog before 2013 arrives.

And since this is my last day to do it, there may be even more subsequent posts today.

Whoops.

I can safely report that for the second year in a row, we made it through Christmas without any tree ornament casualties.

I think we're getting good at this.

Strategic planning is all it takes. You can read about that Here.

Christmas Eve with the family was eventful, as always. We at shrimp until we couldn't eat shrimp anymore; at chocolate and Maple Nut Goodie Bars until we couldn't eat chocolate and Maple Nut Goodie Bars anymore...and then played our Christmas Trivia with...you guessed it, food prizes!!

And there were some good ones this year. Including a double pack of Klondike bars in the freezer that you can't see from the picture.

I personally was going for the 2 half-pound Reese's Peanut Butter cups. 

And I got 'em.

I answered the first question of the game correctly (there are a total of eight "la's" in the Christmas Carol "Deck the Halls") and answered the second question of the game correctly to freeze my Reese's so no one could steal them.

That's never happened to me before.

Reese's make me do crazy things.

 And Nate scored the huge container of red vines, so I'd definitely say it was a win-win for the Townsend's this Christmas Eve. As the prizes each year keep getting better and better, we'll have to really study our Christmas trivia throughout the year.

My dad really should too.

He's pretty bad.

Sorry to call you out in it, daddy, but I'm just bein' real.

Some family pictures at the end of the night always confirms a good time.

My Uncle told me he didn't want to see these up on my blog, but surely he had to know that I can't not post at least one right? Or a few?

So I picked the ones in which he looks most dashing, so he can't be mad at me.

At least he shouldn't be.

I may be surrendering my title of "favorite niece" for this, but I hope it doesn't have to come down to that.

Just sayin'.

Since Christmas was in the middle of the week this year and Nate had to work the day after, we didn't drive up north Christmas day for more of Nate's family's festivities. So we were fortunate enough to sleep in, open gifts, make pancakes for breakfast, and a whole-lotta nothin' else!

If it looks like I've been in my pajamas all day and didn't brush my hair...it's cause I didn't.

And it was marvelous.

I'm not really one to post pictures of Christmas gifts, cause I feel like sometimes it comes off as bragging...but I do wanna brag about one thing:

I got a bow! And it's pink! And I freakin' love it!

I've been out shooting twice now and it really is so fun! I almost kind of like it better than shooting a gun...cause it's not as loud.

Cause I'm weird when it comes to loud noises. You know, the vacuum, the garbage disposal, the shooting range.

Hurts my ears.

But the archery range is almost close to silent.

Just the way I like it.

Oh and Duck Dynasty. I have to brag about Duck Dynasty. Cause I think everyone can agree that Duck Dynasty is the shiz.

Since I've mentioned before how terribly difficult it is to shop for my husband, I was pretty proud of myself when I got one of his gifts early in September.

Nate is a die hard George Strait fan, but has never been able to see him live.

Earlier this year the King himself announced he'd be embarking on his last tour, The Cowboy Rides Away.

Bingo.

Christmas gift!

I went online to look for tickets but, what the heck?? He's not coming to Phoenix?! Which by the way, I have a bone to pick with you artists that don't stop in AZ. Phoenix is the 6th largest city in the country...how do you skip Phoenix, but make two stops in New Mexico?!

Whatever. I'll forgive you George. After all, you are the King. And plus it just means the hubs and I get to take a road trip!

I tried to be all clever and wrap boxes within boxes, and put a hint on each one using a George Strait lyric.

 I feel like I should get bonus points for this one.

And then, just like that, Christmas was over.

The day after Christmas has to easily be one of the most depressing days of the year.

There's nothing left under the tree.

My tree doesn't smell anymore.

KEZ is no longer playing Christmas music.

And I know that in a matter of days I'll be forced to take my decorations down.

What a bummer.

At least I still have some serious Reese's Peanut Butter cups to finish.

'Til next year!

More December Shenanigans

Last year my family and I took a weekend to head up north to Sedona for the Red Rock Fantasy Christmas lights display, and then on to Flagstaff to play in the snow.

You can read about it here.

It was hoot.

And since we're no dummies, if it was a hoot once we figured it'd be a hoot twice. 

Enter: the second annual Sedona Red Rock Fantasy/snowy Flagstaff weekend extravaganza.

Before our trip we were concerned there would be no snow to play in...after all, there was no snow on the ground.

Anywhere.

Which would have defeated the purpose of going to Flagstaff, since the goal was to play in the snow.

You can see why this would give us a complex right?

 But since we have impeccable timing, the weekend we went up was the first snow storm of the season. In fact, we probably got more weather than we bargained for.
 It rained the whole way up to Sedona from Phoenix.

 In fact, some of the Christmas lights weren't on at the Red Rock Fantasy because of the rain.

Although, question: aren't Christmas lights waterproof? At the very least, weatherproof?

Whatevs.

At least we got to enjoy the lights that were on. And there were some good ones this year!

Before we went to the lights display my mom and I bought these totally ridiculous cool hats.

Cause it was cold.

And we needed hats to keep our head warm.

It was just an added bonus that they were animal hats.

Mine's an owl.

And my mom's, while it looks like a pig, it's actually a unicorn.

So we called it the horny pig.

Cause unicorns have a horn, but it looks like a pig.

See what we did there?

Personally, I loved the hats.

Nate didn't.

But I was warm...and an owl...so I didn't give a hoot.

See what I did there?

Owl?...hoot?

He always knows how to ruin a good picture.

After we finished the Christmas lights we went to the restaurant/bar that's at the end of the route, the same one we went to last year.

My sister, mom, and me

 We had appetizers, drinks, some of us played pool, and some of us taught my mom how to play pool.

None of which included me. 

I don't know how to play pool and I wasn't really in a learning mood.

But if you weren't there, I feel bad for you. Because you missed out on the biggest air ball of all time. Mom tried to hit one and WHOOSH! Nothin' but air!!

We laughed.

Pretty dang hard.

  We also laughed pretty dang hard at this picture.

Talk about creepers.

My dad and his son-in-laws

The next morning we packed up and headed to Flagstaff for the day for some serious snow play. 

The snow was gorgeous!

Both the snow and the play were pretty serious.

Oh and the cold. The cold was pretty dang serious too.

We were fuh-ree-zing!

We inflated our tubes, the same ones we used last year, and hit the hill!!

Audrey and adam

Mom and Dad

 

Dad at the ready with his camera...

The hubs and I

Needless to say, we were pretty wet. 

You know you're from Arizona when you don't own snow pants and instead go play in the snow in your jeans. I'll have to make a mental note for next time...

Cause there will definitely be a next time.