Of Trees and Birthdays

I know this is a rather odd title for a post, but it was what consumed my time last Saturday as I was with my friends and family.  And I have to say, it was a very fun day!

Mid-morning, I went over to a friend's apartment to help her decorate for the holiday season. We planned to go to a local tree farm and choose the perfect Christmas tree to grace her living room.

While waiting on another friend to join us, I finally voiced what I had been wondering all that morning:  "How are you going to get this tree home???"  "Oh, we'll just put it in the car.  The back seats can fold down," was the reply.   "Sounds easy enough," I thought.  "With three grown adults, we should be able to handle it with no problem."

Before heading out the door, my friend decided at the last minute to bring along some kite string in case we had to tie the tree on the car roof rather than stuff it inside her SUV.  We would later discover that was a very smart move.

And so the adventure began!

We arrived at the tree farm to be greeted with these words on the sign:  Christmas Trees, Cut Your Own.  Oh dear!  We hadn't come prepared at all.  Cut our own tree!?  All three of us immediately reasoned that surely there would be some man on this farm who would be willing to cut our tree for us.  I mean, if you saw three ladies walking around looking at trees with no ax in hand, wouldn't you offer to help them out???  So we pressed forward in our resolve to buy a tree!

Between dodging rain showers and walking through rows and rows of what we didn't know were pre-cut trees before finally being informed, we settled on a beautifully-shaped, 7-ft. Christmas tree.  And we didn't even have to cut it!  The farmhand wrapped it in netting and placed it on top of the car for us.  Boy, weren't we glad we had that string!!!  It may have only been kite string, but it was still string!

Katie and Rachel did a masterful job tying down the tree.  They threw the string back and forth from one side of the car to the other until we thought it was secure enough for the drive home.  We could only imagine what the farmhands were thinking of us...

And what do you know, we made it back to the apartment accident free!  Here we are with success written all over our faces:

Carrying the tree up two flights of stairs and into the apartment proved to be easier than the first leg of the adventure.  We were so pleased with ourselves!

The rest of the afternoon was spent decorating the tree and enjoying rich fellowship with sisters in Christ.  It was truly a delightful way to mark the beginning of the holiday season!

After arriving home from this activity, we all piled into the car to head to Laura's house for Sarah's and Hannah's birthday party.  They were both SO excited about the celebration!

Sarah turned 5:

Hannah turned 3:

And we can't forget Grace!

I loved watching their faces while we sang "Happy Birthday"

While we waited to open presents, we read some stories.

I gave the two girls their own purses with little surprises inside.  

It proved to be a very fun evening celebrating the lives of two precious girls!  And little did we realize that another birthday was around the corner. :)