Sunshine and Rainbows

Hello there... how have you been? Well, I would be lying if I told you that I have been *fine*

You see, I am still coming down off a perfect sort of day high.  There was sunshine ( and 50ish temps,) but no rainbows on Friday.  Actually, at one point, there were birds flying in a perfect heart formation.... I turned to Mr. Hughes and told him it was a sign that we were *meant to be*

Now, If you know me or Mr. Hughes for that matter, that isn't something that either of us would say.

Still, I said it.

It was that kind of day.

We started off our day with a trip to Starbucks... they had told me 2 days prior that they were finished serving the pumpkin scones this year.  Guess who had a pumpkin scone Friday morning... 

Then, we made our way to the mall.. I know, yikes, huh?  Well, I strategically planned this outing so that it was the perfect time between the mall opening and Ole St. Nick's lunch break.

Barely had to wait in line.

baby hughes did not scream.  That in itself was not surprising... he is pretty friendly and social.  And cute too.  But, in case you are thinking of taking him off my hands, just know that he also punches and throws fits like no one else. 

So, after we got our adorable 2010 photo (Kris Kringle had a real beard... that is a requirement) 

we got these funny little reindeer antlers..... and what was inside the reindeer antlers?

A Build -a- Bear coupon.  Genius marketing strategy.

Well, why not?  We rode the incredibly fun *ride* up to the 2nd floor.

And what ever did we find to build?

A snowy owl.

perfection.

We are still deciding what to name it... 

After doing a little more browsing/ shopping, we headed to a Christmas Tree Farm that Mr. Hughes found online (oh, and we picked up a Cherry Coke along the way.  A real one.)

We had a slight little problem with forgetting the camera card.  A trip to Walgreens fixed that.

You can't take a 2 year old to his 1st ever trip to a Christmas Tree Farm and not photojournalize it.

This farm was the real deal.  Lots of trees.  All Sizes.  

They give you a saw and a measuring stick.

And, turn you loose. To run in and out of rows of trees, searching for *the one*

And, when you found it... and passed it up to search a little longer... well, you never found *the one* again.

That's okay though.

We did find a tree.

The perfect one.

And, when Mr. Hughes put down the camera to saw the tree down, I picked up the camcorder to document my manly lumberjack man sawing through the tree (very anticlimatic... it took him like 2 minutes, tops.)

Well, wouldn't you know, somehow, I didn't record the *timber*

So disappointing.

The treefarmhands got the tree ready and tied it to the top of the Jeep.

What an SUV is made for....to haul Christmas trees.

Then, we had one of them snap our photo in front a vintage truck... yep.... that one at the top.

We don't have many family photos.  This one happened to turn out.

And, will be on our Christmas card this year.

If we had hired a photographer, and bought clothes, and fixed our hair the way we wanted, the photo would have been awful.

This one... perfect.

We left... made a stop for some lights and Mexican.

Then a long afternoon nap for baby hughes while we got the boring tree stuff underway.

All the decorating still isn't quite finished... it will be very soon.

Right now, I am watching my hyena engrossed in his Thomas trains with a green food coloring goatee from a *surprise*

Mini Christmas mints.

He totally gets surprises.

Here's hoping you all have a few days here and there that put all other exciting days to shame.

Bye for now!