Julia in an Oak Harbor SNOW!!!

We've enjoyed this more-than-expected snowfall.  This video is a bit long (7 min+) but the kids are cute, so it's worth watching it all...

Grandma Nienhuis Says 'Goodbye' to Oak Harbor

The great thing about living on a island in the northwestern corner of the continental U.S. is the variety of ways to get to the mainland.  Grandma Nienhuis had the wonderful opportunity to hop on a connecting flight to the Seattle airport using the float plane service that is offered.  

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

Levi playing in the snow!

Yes, it has snowed in Oak Harbor. It started snowing on Saturday - and Sunday afternoon (and everyday since) Levi has had a great time playing in the snow. He loves it. Although today and yesterday the wind chills were pretty cold so he didn't last long.

I LOVE the snow - I might be the only one here in Oak Harbor who is excited about it, though. We have another Winter Storm Watch for Wed/Thursday and I am hoping we get dumped on. The great thing here is that a "lot" of snow is like 2 inches - everything closes down. It just doesn't snow very often here. They already cancelled the women's Wed. morning Bible study tomorrow, just because it MIGHT snow. HA!

We've also decorated our house for Christmas - here are a few pictures I've taken so our family can see:

Our snowflake Christmas card holders:

Our mantle over our woodstove - can't see it but I have lights with greenery and gold and red shiny ornaments to add color

I rigged up some fishing string and hung some shiny snowflakes from both sides of the dividing wall between our dining room and kids playroom

And last but not least, our very cute and humble Christmas tree:

Christmas Tree hunting

Typically, we get our Christmas tree each year from one of Whidbey Island's Christmas Tree farms.....you know, the ones with all the people going from row to row of planted trees trying to find the "perfect" one - not too big, not too small, not too fat, not too skinny.

Well, my adventurous husband happened to read some info on the fact that you can pay $10 and go find your own Christmas tree in Mt. Baker National Forest! HOW COOL! I was very excited about this option too (until I heard the part that the bears are extra hungry this year due to a low huckleberry bush population).....hmmm........

Anyway, last Saturday we set out in our Subaru up into the mountains. We stopped at the Ranger Station in Sedro-Woolley and paid our $10....plus $2.95 each for the kids to buy a little compass with the bonus-feature of a bear whistle on them!!! We felt safe and ready to go!

On the way up to the mountains, we stopped in the small town of Concrete (apparently they are known for their now-extinct concrete business) for some lunch. Then, it was into the wild. We drove up windy roads, following a map given to us at the ranger station that highlighted the areas where the BEST trees were known to be growing. Along the way, we passed several other adventure-seekers like ourselves.

As the drizzle started, we found the area where we wanted to go hunt for our tree. After hiking up and down several steep embankments, we found it.....

As we cut the tree and put it on our car for its 2 hr ride to our home, we realized that in the woods a tree looks much bigger and fuller than it really is!!! Nontheless, it looks great in our house and fits perfectly in the corner we had picked out for it.

So, we may have more of a "Charlie Brown" sort of Christmas tree, but it sure has some fun memories surrounding it.