Have a Blessed 2012!

We are ringing in the New Year at the Grizzly Den tonight. Everything is packed and the dogs are ready to hop into the back of the truck. Rudyard is under a winter storm watch for tomorrow into Monday. Keep your fingers crossed we finally get enough snow to go snow-shoeing and snowmobiling!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Oh Christmas Tree...

It has been busy! I'm sure you all are experiencing the same at some level. For my family and me, this year is very different from Christmas's past. The move and the packing and unpacking...of course I can't remember everything even if I do write it all down. But we laugh it off and make due. This is the first year in 30 that we don't have a real tree set up for ourselves and our two sons. We made due at our son's house (He bought our house when we moved to the UP) and are adjusting to an artificial tree that I keep set up all year round but not in Christmas style. We've all traveled far to get together for the holiday and with our various schedules, a real tree would have been inconvenient this year. So for this post I thought I would show you all the trees that have adorned our Christmas parties and visits to family.

When we loaded everything up to head downstate, there was a little bit of snow in the UP.

The water sparkled as we crossed the Mackinac Bridge.

Christmas at my brother's house - It was a wonderful day!

And their beautiful Christmas trees!

My mother's beautiful trees!

Our make due tree!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Let it Snow - please

Today is a beautiful day for December. But truthfully, my idea of a "perfect" day would be watching a blustery snowstorm through my window, cup of hot tea in hand. Sigh. But if it isn't going to snow, then it may as well be sunny and in the low 40's - like today. The last two days have been windy and in the low 20's. 

Yesterday I bundled up and took Bear and Ike on a walk to the Grizzly Den. As you can see from the pictures below, there is only a dusting of snow and the river is high and beginning to freeze along the edges.

Many of you know our home is very small - just under 600 square feet. So an indoor Christmas tree was out of the question  - for this year anyways. But not an OUTDOOR Christmas tree. The dogs helped us scout our land in search of that perfect tree to set up just outside the window of our sitting area. 

Steve hauling the perfect Christmas tree out of the woods.

Hmmm...an overgrown Charlie Brown Christmas tree. "Ike, what do you think?" All I got was the pout. So I shrugged my shoulders and unraveled the lights not knowing Steve had disappeared into the woods again. 

Then I heard the chainsaw.

And out of the woods came this beautiful tree. So now we have two trees!

Tess approves. I'm not sure where Ike went. Both trees are pretty in their own unique way. I've hung suet holders as ornaments and watch the birds fly in and out all day long.

Twinkling under the moonlight!

Now if it would just snow!

The weathermen are saying they are watching 

a storm system for Wednesday and Thursday.

So we'll keep our fingers crossed and continue doing the snow dance.

Have a great week everyone!