Trixi's and Christmas Trees

Today was our neighborhood's annual Christmas-tree cutting trip, and we were so excited that this year the girls would actually get a bit more out of the experience than an extended nap in the car.

As usual, our first stop is Trixi's, a somewhat-historic cafe/bar near the forest where we hike to cut trees. Trixi was a wild woman, and so the decor in her bar is nothing less. The posters, the stuffed animals on the walls, and the photos of Trixi all add to the atmosphere.

Here, Elena enjoys a lunch of grilled cheese and tater tots - lately, her favorite part of a meal like this is dipping everything in ketchup. Today, even pickles were fair game for dipping.

Clara held court at the other end of the table. She got a grilled cheese and tots, too, but had more fun with the mayo packets our friend Emma kept handing her.

There was a little stage in one area of Trixi's that was decorated for Christmas - Neither Clara nor Elena could believe this indoor snow globe!

Standing under the moose head - last year, the girls just lay in our arms, but this year they were reaching the entire time - up to the moose, over to the arcade, down to something on the floor - they almost don't care where, but they are eager to point and direct you at this age. I think they like the power!

Elena got her way - over to the arcade, where she wished she was just a bit taller.

Clara decided to try her hand at foosball instead:

Back at the little stage, the girls couldn't resist clowning around and putting on a show for everyone:

But then it was off to Christmas tree cutting! We headed up to our favorite spot, where it had just started snowing. Just for the little trip up the hill, we put some people from a car without four wheel drive in the back of the truck.

We hiked just a little bit up the hill, and were able to find a beautiful grove of trees. We found a tree we loved. We've decided not to bring a tree home this year, so we just had fun visiting it in the forest.

We almost forgot that this would be the first time the girls had really seen snow and understood that this was something different. Clara especially seemed really excited, pointing at it and wanting to get down in it. Future ski bunny?

Clara keeps watch over the boughs we decided to bring home:

Then, back at the cars we have our usual hot chocolate and cookies. Some of the cookies the girls and Christina made with Aunt Cyndie made it to the party - but the big hit for Elena was the hot chocolate:

Mmmm!

Clara thinks she needs another cookie:

And now, we present the cutest girls in the universe:

They were really happy on the tailgate together:

That is, until Clara figured out that Elena had a candy cane. And wait - Clara didn't!

We thought getting Clara one would solve the problem:

But Elena had apparently had it with sitting on the tailgate. So Clara got a little snug spot all to herself:

Worried about the after-effects of that sugar? Well, in Elena's case you'd be right - she was antsy the whole drive home. Clara, well, that's a different matter. In the last few weeks Clara has become very interested in texture. She loves things that are soft (or as she pronounces it, "saft"). She'll often find something she likes and stroke it, saying "Saft, saft!" This mitten is a prime example. She loves these mittens Grandpa and Grandma Mary gave her last year, and once she had this with her, she snuggled up and went straight to sleep for the whole ride home.

As we were leaving our Christmas-tree spot, we saw this cane hanging from the fence. Miracle on 34th Street, anyone? Are we meant to move in over here?

Finally, even though it didn't turn out too well, we had to include a picture of the four of us together...

To contrast with THIS from last year. Amazing!