O Christmas Tree

Spearfish Canyon is our favorite place in the Black Hills. You drive through a winding road in the middle of soaring rock formations, thick groves of pines and aspens, and following a perfect creek.

It can only be prettier covered in snow.

We left Deadwood and drove through the Canyon Saturday morning on our way back to the Green Bean for breakfast.

Apparently the Green Bean loves us as much as we love it 🙂

After breakfast we took advantage of our free time and the fact that the stores on main street were actually open, and spent an hour or so walking through the stores and picking up a few treasures. It reminded us so much of St. Helena in Napa Valley. The only thing it was missing was a good olive oil shop. We may just have to open one up to fund our dream house in the Canyon 🙂

We had really hoped to find a local farm Christmas tree lot in Spearfish, but after driving around and asking a number of locals, we determined that people in Spearfish apparently do not buy Christmas trees. There wasn’t a single lot!

So we googled and found a lot open at the Club for Boys in Rapid City. 

Picked up a little Christmas a la Bing Crosby from the thrift store for a well spent 27 cents…

then headed home Griswold style.

Every year as I unwrap our ornaments I just feel all warm and happy inside. Christmas is really such a wonderful holiday and evokes such great memories for me. There’s something so comforting and joyful about sitting in a warm home, carefully placing each little memory on a branch. And nothing beats the glow of twinkling Christmas tree lights 🙂

As we decorated, we snacked on pepper jelly over goat cheese and some Christmas spirits.

For years we used a huge box of passed down ornaments my mom had so kindly given us when she changed out her tree theme. The year we got married I decided it was time to start a collection and theme of our own. We love any kind of rustic decor so I kept with that theme for our tree. Lots of little wooden ornaments, woodland inspired creatures, and as of last year, a twig star. 

We have a serious thing for owls. If you look around our house you will see them in almost every nook and cranny. Our tree is covered with a selection of owls in all sorts of materials. This guy was our latest addition, a treasure we found in Spearfish.

And an antler picked up by Husband.

And a grape bunch of jingle bells we found at Prairie Berry a few weeks ago.

The next day (today) we literally had nothing on the agenda. It started snowing early on. Big, fluffy, but wet, flakes.

This moron was laying down in the yard with the white stuff just piling on top of him. We tried to get a picture, but he moved before we could of course.

I had planned to make my Mamaw Gaye’s biscuits for Thanksgiving, but I didn’t think about them until Husband was pulling the chicken out of the oven. So we saved them for today. I tested out my new holiday cookie cutters while I was at it 🙂

I think Mamaw would be proud. They were delicious! 

The rest of the day has been pretty laid back. We ran a few errands, including grocery shopping before the snow trapped up in the house.

In a way I’m ready to get back to a normal schedule, work up a sweat in the gym, and give my tummy a break from all the heavy food.

But in another way I don’t want this day to end. 

It has been a great weekend, and it’s only a few short weeks until Christmas is here. Every year I fight to enjoy each day, each moment, and try to not let the holiday season fly by in the wink of an eye. But every year it slips through my fingers and is over before I know it.