Oh Tannenbaum!

Ah...Christmas is a wonderful time of year, isn't it?  It's my favorite and I'm always so sad to have to take everything down and go back to "life as usual" (even if I feel incredibly blessed because my life suits me perfectly!)  What better way than to get past the post-holiday blues than to take that tree that has brought you so much enjoyment over the last few weeks and give it one last hurrah?  We packed up a campfire picnic, invited a few friends (one of whom just happened to still have their tree around) and headed out into the desert.

The Beaven and Daniels trees fit so nicely in the back of Fred's truck.
(Lest anyone think we've decided to jump ship as PSU fans...  I'm going to give myself until next football season to try to get over what the board did to JoePa and we'll see if I go back to cheering for Penn State or for whomever they are playing against.)

We brought along our old lady, Semper!  She really seemed to enjoy herself, just walking around and exploring in the desert.  She usually looks happy, but she looked really happy this evening!
It's been so long since we've taken her somewhere more than just a walk around the neighborhood or a trip to the vet.  I am telling you, this dog has more hair than the rest of the dogs in Yuma combined.  Oh, and she does not enjoy car rides at all.  She used to get fairly carsick as a puppy/young dog.  Thankfully she outgrew the worst of it, but still gets terribly nervous when she rides in a car.  Apparently nervousness manifests itself by shedding?  I am always amazed that after we drag her from one side of the country to the other that she isn't bald.

The kids always have a blast climbing up and down the hills.

I love the lack of development and people around Yuma.  It is just a nice place to spend your time.  I definitely think the desert is a beautiful reminder of how God can make so many different things spectacular just for our eyes.

Jeremy with our kids and Suzy at the top of the hill.  I stayed on the bottom to take pictures.  Yeah, that's why.  :)

The sun was just starting to descend as we headed back from our short hike to our fire pit.

The face of HAPPY!

Amelia found some rocks and made her own little fire pit which Jeremy let her burn before we left.

Some more Christmas fodder.
What are we going to do with this?

Target practice!
Uncle Joel and Uncle Jay got Marshall that bb gun, remember?
Our initial plan was to light our gingerbread houses on fire (remember the matchstick snowmen and hedgehogs?), but decided that it would be even more fun to put holes in them first.

Another happy face after hitting his target.

After a few practice shots, Marshall was feeling pretty confident with his new hobby.

Proud of his marksmanship.

The sun is sinking further in the sky and the cotton candy clouds are starting to come out.

My pretty girl.  How did she get so big so fast?

Amelia was more than willing to walk Semper around so she could keep exploring.

Marshall's "entrance wound"

And... no exit wound?
Guess it ricocheted around inside and stayed there.

Amelia's entrance wound

And looky there!  An exit wound!  And it's bigger than the entrance wound!  Just like in people!

So... this was our plan for the tree.
I don't think it's having fun anymore, but we are!
**Disclaimer-this is the Daniels tree

This truly was one for Smokey the Bear.
You would not believe how quick this tree went up and how HOT those flames were.  You can see Marshall running away in the background and everyone in the picture above has backed way up too.  Totally a lesson in not leaving your Christmas lights on when you aren't at home!

Now, that's HOT!

From glorious to pathetic in under a minute.

One of my favorite times in the desert.  Sunset.
Before we leave from here, I'll have to try out a sunrise.  I suppose that means I'll have to sleep in the desert.  Which means a camping trip.

The old lady didn't sleep at all the entire time we were out, which is a big chunk of what she does at home anymore.  When we came home, she walked in one door and went straight to the back door, barking to be let out (silly since she just spent HOURS outside, but it's what she always does to get a treat before going to bed)  She went to sleep and we didn't hear her walking around or fluffing up her bed at all that night.

Fred, myself, Semper and Sylvia trying to get a little heat from the fire.  When the sun goes down in the desert, it gets cold immediately.

We roasted hot dogs, made smores, had beans and fresh Yuma oranges for dinner.  YUM!

What's left of a tarantula that the kids found.  For size reference, that's Abby's thumb.

The kids had so much fun playing games with flashlights and making shadow scenes on the canyon wall next to us.  They were acting out their scenes and watching their shadows at the same time and at one point, Jeremy went to add more wood to the fire, so he picked up the ax and went to hammer it down, reflecting himself HUGELY right above the kids on the canyon wall (looking like a giant wielding an ax)which sent them all screaming in horror.  That had to have been the most funny thing I've seen in a long time!

We tossed our tree in towards the end and as soon as it started to go en fuego, all of the adults had the same realization at the same time.  That burning tree made just about as much light as the sun..."Quick clean up everything from dinner as quick as you can!!!"  So there was a mad dash, probably looked something like that old game show where the contestants could have anything they could get in their cart in under 60 seconds.  :)

The only thing left to do was to burn the remnants of the gingerbread houses.  The kids remarked that we probably shouldn't eat that stuff anymore because it just wouldn't burn. I think it probably had just dried out sitting in our next to 0 humidity house for a few weeks, but I'm not going to let them in on my secret.  We'll just let them boycott candy.