Tree Shopping, back in November.

Popcorn! while tree shopping, thank you Home Depot.  

This man knows how to pick a good tree.

For the first time ever we ventured out to a store on Black Friday.  One quick trip to Home Depot to pick out the perfect pine for our desert home.  It instantly made our apartment cozy and brought some of the holiday feeling we'd been missing with the still hot temperatures.  That might be the only shopping we ever do on Black Friday.  For me the time is all about family and setting foot into a busy, crowded, retail crazed store is the last thing on my list.  I like our time together to be cherished.  That night AJ and Kevin hit up the iPic theater to see a movie and my dad, Chloe and I continued the family tradition he and my mom started when we were children and watched The Velveteen Rabbit before bed.  If you don't have this movie you must get it for your Christmas collection.  Meryl Streep narrates, as usual, she (and the illustrations) is perfection.

Let's just say our tree was one crispy little guy by the time we traveled to Temecula for the holidays.      He was removed for fear of fire a week before we left.  But oh how we enjoyed that sweet pine scent.  And the twinkling lights.  Oh the lights, my favorite part.