Christmas tree tradition and play dates

The weekend after Thanksgiving is always when I get my Christmas tree even though Jesse often suggests a later date. For me, Thanksgiving is done so I want to get the Christmas show on the road. It's my favorite holiday and want to embrace every moment of it before we head into the long, cold doldrums of winter.

We decided to head to Hansen's Tree farm again this year partly because of the trees and the entire experience (food, gift shop, hay ride, bonfire, etc), but also because of the syrup they sell there. The syrup itself is good, but it's really the bottle it comes in that is genius. It never ends up with sticky syrup drip so we've just been refilling the bottle we got last year with syrup from the grocery store throughout the year. We're a little fearful the cap on our current one will break with so much usage so we really wanted to get a new one. We talked about going to a tree farm that isn't quite so expensive, but that silly syrup bottle swayed us to go to this place again. 

Riley got up a little early so by the time we got to the tree farm around 10 am she was in a mood. In fact she put herself down for a nap (where she didn't actually sleep) at 8:30 so I knew she might not be feeling the greatest. Once at the tree farm she complained of being hungry so we tried to quickly cut a tree and head to the gift shop where they provide free hot dogs and Christmas sausage. Riley ended up eating two hot dogs so that explains part of her mood.

My dad was known for posing me with a saw in front of any tree he cut down (see examples below) so I thought I would carry on that tradition with my kid, but she wasn't really feeling it. Notice the sleepy eye rubbing happening here.

Ever since that year we bought a 'too fat tree for our space' we've been overly cautious about the since of the tree we get. I think this tree was even smaller than last year's tree, but overall it's the perfect little tree for us.

We have a thing about taking pictures of our feet when on vacation so it seemed appropriate to do so here. Plus, I know I can always get Jesse on board for this type of picture. Almost makes me want to send out Christmas cards with this on it.

Last year Riley refused to go on the hay ride, but that was because it was pulled by horses (The horse pulled ride started later in the day), but this year she was totally open to going on the tractor hay ride. It was super bumpy so no pictures from the actual ride, but it was still fun. 

Working on her second hot dog.

Then we went home and put Riley down for an early nap which she initially resisted because she claims she wasn't tired, but she totally fell asleep. One of her friends had invited her to go to the circus that day, but they changed it to Sunday so we suggested her friend and her friend's sister come over for a play date.

The girls had a lot of fun and did all go to the circus together the next day where Riley even went on a pony ride - something we have never been able to convince her to do. This was seriously amazing and makes me want to try to recruit other parents to get my kid to try new food, or go swimming. It's worth a try, right? There was a pre-party before the circus which is where the picture below were taken from.

Riley reports it was a really fun time. I feel like I was close to the same age the only time I went to the circus. I don't remember too much about the circus itself, but more about how my mom (who was going blind and had mental health issues) struggled to get us on the right bus to get out of there. Ah, memories. Glad Riley's experience was totally different... and so grateful for this family to invite Riley with.