The Waddell Family: Christmas Part 1

We had a very busy and a little unusual Christmas season this year! We kicked off the season right on December 1st with a visit to the Christmas tree farm. This is the second year we visited McDowell's Big Fork Nursery on Suck Creek Mountain, and we have been very pleased both years. This year, we opted to go with a Eastern White Pine tree. The needles are much softer than the Norway Spruce that we got last year, and the needle retention was awesome! Cutting down the tree was a different story. For those who may not know Jeremy very well, patience is not his gift. As he was sawing the tree, Cora, Micah, and I were standing back watching. I asked him to let us know when it was about to fall, and Cora would yell "timber!" Well, he said it was about to fall, and he sawed....and he sawed....and he continued to saw.... and then he ended up with a bloody hand and arm. At that point, I managed to convince him to take a break and let me try. Now, I will say that he had done the majority of the work, but I finished the job and got to cut down the tree! It just fit in the back of our new minivan, and we made our way back down the mountain. When we got our tree last year, Jeremy's parents had gone with us and his dad had brought along some equipment. We got our Christmas tree home and realized that we didn't have a saw to cut off the bottom. Oops. Thankfully, Ace Hardware is just a couple of minutes down the road, so we now own a hand saw! Hopefully we'll be a little more prepared next year. Here are a couple of pics from our adventure.

Getting ready to cut down the tree

This was before he got angry at the tree. :)

Lights on

Cora wanted to put the star on the tree :)

Cora helping decorate the tree

Micah eating the decoration boxes

I don't think I have to explain this one... :)

Cora made her musical debut at church at the hanging of the greens service. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but I did get a video of her 3 year old group.

We did a couple of other special, fun things this year. Cora Leigh, my mom, my sister, and I all went up to Nashville to see the Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular. I was a little nervous about how Cora would do, but she was great! We really enjoyed the show, but couldn't take any pics. Here's one picture of us in front of Mandy's tree before the show.

Our little family of four (and a half) also took advantage of a groupon offer and went to see the Christmas lights at the Chattanooga Zoo. Cora Leigh was SO excited to see Santa Claus. It was all that she talked about on the way and when we arrived. However, when we actually got to where Santa was, she did not want to talk to him or get close to him - just a peek from across the room was enough for her. We did enjoy the lights and getting to see the animals.

We had our first family celebration in the middle of the month and celebrated Christmas with my Dad's family and Jeremy's birthday. We missed my brother and his family at the celebration as they were out of town, but we really enjoyed getting to visit with extended family who we don't get to see very often. AND we got to hang out with my cousin's baby girl - cute pics below. :)