Our Black Hills Tree

One of the many perks of living in South Dakota (cough::sarcasm::cough) is that for a $10 permit, you can drive into the Black Hills National Forest and chop down your own Christmas tree! The majority of the trees are Ponderosa Pines with really long needles, but Adam and I were determined to find a Spruce tree (with short needles). The only Spruce trees we could find weren't very dense, but I guess it's all part of the experience. Adam made a psycho killer face while he was walking with the saw, so I had to capture the moment.

We also found Heidi a little tree just her size. She was a champ in her new, warm winter coat. You may think I'm silly for buying my dog a coat, but she was shivering - even with the coat! We finally decided on our tree when we realized we weren't going to find anything full and more traditional looking. I really like our forest tree though, and it's really tall! It was nice to throw it in the back of Adam's truck and not worry about it too, considering we passed quite a few people who had to tie their trees to their cars.

I was excited to decorate the tree and put up all of my other Christmas decorations today. The picture doesn't quite do my little tree justice though. It actually looks pretty nice. It smells so good too. Our Christmas tree in Florida ended up being a hybrid tree with strange needles that didn't fall off. It didn't smell good. It didn't smell at all, actually. But it's been fun to have different kinds of Christmas trees in the different places we've lived.

Later this evening, we went to the Festival of Lights parade downtown. It was okay, but I was disappointed in the lack of candy thrown from the floats. No candy whatsoever. What kind of parade doesn't involve candy-throwing? I know I'm almost 24, but I still enjoy a good piece of hard-earned parade candy. Florida parades were strange because no matter what the season or parade, you could always count on catching some Mardi Gras beads. Not just a few beads either - we're talking handfuls and handfuls of beads. I always thought it was weird, but I guess you appreciate things like that more when you leave a parade empty handed... Other than that, the parade was okay. Some of the floats were pretty nice, and we were sure to bundle up! All in all, a very Christmas-y, fun day!

My Christmas Present

So my wonderful husband bought me a digital piano on Saturday as my Christmas present this year (which will probably count as my birthday present and next year's Christmas present also). I've played the piano since I was 7, but it's been hard for me to not have easy access to a piano for 5+ years. I love to play the piano (not that I always wanted to practice as a child). I'm so glad my mom told me that I could quit my lessons when I "didn't want to quit any more." Thanks for being a stickler, mom!

I must say that I've had some very spiritual experiences playing the piano, mostly when I've been playing alone. I'm so thankful for the gift of music in my life. I'm also thankful that Adam decided that it was time for me to finally have a piano when he saw me sitting in Sacrament Meeting with my sheet music, going through the notes in my head - for fun.

Adam insisted on video-taping my first notes played on my new piano, so though the song is generic and not so impressive, here it is - sideways and all:

Down the Drain

So...remember when our toilet flooded? Well, they tried to fix the toilet that same night with no avail. Then when they came back to pick up the carpet fans, they tried to fix it again, with no luck. So they finally came to replace our toilet yesterday, and said they were going to break apart the old one to find out what was wrong with it. So Adam got a call today saying that we are going to have to pay $190 for our new toilet. Apparently, housing maintenance found something in the toilet that was causing all of the problems: a dog toy. Don't ask me how it got there, but Adam was able to verify that the purple, rubber horseshoe was indeed our dog's toy. I was wondering where that thing went...

Heidi's punishment was to model by the new toilet with her "I'm sorry, mommy" face. I think she's forgiven now.

Snow Day!

We received word that a big snow storm was coming through starting around 5p.m. last night. Well, it snowed and snowed all night, and the wind is so bad in South Dakota, that it was quite noisy. We awoke to a couple of phone calls stating that Adam and I both had snow days today!!! Hooray! Unfortunately, we can't go anywhere because we're pretty much trapped by the snow drifts. It looks like we might be getting out soon though, thanks to our little dog and a little thing she likes to call "determination."


Heidi finally dug us free, with the help of Adam and some kind ward members (thanks Bro. Shirley and Bro. Rocknak!) The snow in front of our house is a combination of a giant bush, snow drifts, and shoveled snow. Heidi had a grand old time hopping around in it like a bunny. Oh, and Adam, I don't think we're in Florida anymore!