hunt christmas extravaganza, viii.

hunt christmas extravaganza!!! it came and went and here i am, over a week later, posting about it. it was so much fun though. i got all the hunts to come–nathaniel and jordan included–with a threatening text, “i’m cancelling christmas if you don’t come to get the tree with us,” a few weeks earlier. jordan, who had forgotten and had double booked to be climbing mount washington with his friend said, “okay fine. but if my friend dies, it’s on you.” update: his friend is fine. however with snow drifts up to his chest, he did not make it up the mountain.you see, i didn’t manage a family picture this year. why didn’t i take one when we were all together at the lake? because i don’t have that kind of foresight, my friends! the better question is HOW DO THE REST OF YOU? so i group texted everyone and said, “first saturday in december! can you all be available for breakfast and to get the tree?? WE DON’T HAVE A FAMILY PICTURE FOR A CARD THIS YEAR!” an all-capped detail which is a disaster to exactly nobody but me; but even so, they all showed up, on a saturday, by like 8:30 am. and i was very grateful.
cinnamon raisin bagels, toasted with cream cheese… sun streaming in the windows. problem is there were 9 of us — NINE of us! (whole fam, plus william’s girlfriend! yes, he has a girlfriend!) — and the bagel place seats… ummm…just about 9. so we were rather awkwardly taking over the place, and spreading out at random tables with not much rhyme or reason. in fact, steve sat himself at someone else’s table when they graciously offered him the seat.i love those little hands investigating the bagel shop’s christmas ornaments. like a lot. we got to our favorite tree farm and the boys were already really energized (and by boys i mean nathaniel, jordan, and william) already debating who was going to get to cut down the tree. it’s never ending competition with them, and it’s very entertaining to just sit back and watch. william normally does it, and felt like that tradition should be honored, but jordan, who doesn’t always join in the hunt christmas extravaganza, felt it only fair that he get a turn. weigh in, friends. who should get to do it? do you honor relatively recent traditions, or do you reach back into the more distant past when jordan or even nathaniel used to cut it down? (poor steve. he does not even get considered and he reminds me now that he used to cut it down!)they found their tree! i feel like the charlie brown gang should be photobombing this picture. it was so sunny! a really beautiful, mild day, but the photographer in me wished there’d been some cloud cover… maybe some snow flurries, to really set the new england scene. but alas… steve kept singing, “snow, snow, snow, snow, SNOW!” from white christmas, so i know how he felt about it too. we stood waiting for a wagon to bring us up the hill to cut down our tree for about 10 minutes before we bailed and walked the (very short) walk up ourselves. in that time, these guys nearly killed one another and watching it was hysterical. they had everyone in line laughing. even anders got in on the fun, before i promptly removed him lest he get crushed. the funniest one, and i got it on video, was jordan on the bottom. then william jumps on, and then nathaniel, and the whole thing just collapsed. we were dying. there is always a very good chance they will hurt themselves or one another when they do these things, and despite steve’s constant, “oh boy…guys…this isn’t a good idea” reminders, they forge confidently ahead. the winner! it’s got a pretty hefty divet in the top of it that we only really noticed once it was home and up, but we still like her. who got to cut it down? william began, and then, nathaniel actually won the event when he began to pull on the top, eventually snapping the trunk and then pushing it over on william who was still under it. bingo!!! again, with that sun, but i’ll take what i can get!  william’s girlfriend, kara, and parker–flossing! (p.s. she’s lovely. we’ve hung out with her several times now and so enjoy getting to know her.) please note that lindsey is not 6 feet tall. there’s a loooot of tippy toeing in this family during photos. That little patootie. tree up and decorated! we played christmas music all day and the little ones scurried about digging through our christmas bins pulling out decorations and plopping them around the house. anders exclaimed, “i love this!” holding each one like it a prized possession. i find those moments so incredibly endearing. the holidays with little ones. then we ate lunch–delicious, hearty sandwiches with all the lunch meat and fillings. on to balderdash for well over an hour (we just use the dictionary). that game has become something of a tradition at this point…and, probably like your family, almost from word to word, some are in to win it, others just want to make everybody laugh.

we had such a fun day and i was so glad the big guys came along. (also, parker adores nathaniel right now, and that’s really pretty cute to see.) there’s something really cool about hanging out with your adult kids who live on their own now; we enjoy each other in a totally different way than we used to. i guess that’s only natural. in any case, i’m really happy that we genuinely have fun together. honestly, i laughed harder on saturday than i have in a long time.

merry christmas!

(extravaganzas in years past)