Birthday Weekend Recap!

Whew, on to the rest of the weekend! Here we go.

Trent woke me up early Friday to open presents. Check out my styling new Patagonia long underwear. Hotness. Lots of goodies including the delicious Jo Malone perfume I asked for and a "jean-tastic" embroidered shirt from Emily, new gloves and beanie to keep me warm on the bike, as well as lovely placemats and napkins from parents. Lovely!

He hustled me along to my birthday surprise, but I had to sneak some leftover turkey with cranberry ginger relish for breakfast.

We got in the car and started driving out of town. I had no idea where we were going, but it was a lovely surprise. We went to a mom and pop Christmas tree farm!

We walked all over the farm examining trees and playing with the farm dogs. We finally decided on a Concord Fir, a native North Carolina tree that has a lovely pine/citrus scent. So cute!

They wrapped it up for us, after a brief dash to try to find and ATM in rural North Carolina... interesting! Brief stop at the grocery store and by lab (just for a minute!) and we headed home.

I made us leftover turkey sandwiches with fresh herbed goat cheese and bread from Weaver Street. Add a little cranberry sauce and lettuce and it was heavenly! Trent rigged up a tree stand from a bucket and wood nailed to the bottom of the tree, and we set to decorating. First LED lights from our wedding!

I found our box of Christmas ornaments, so many nice memories, and many more to come.

Decorating the tree was a blast, and strategic placement of the tree in front of the big window where everyone walking by can see makes me happy.

Ta-Da!! We had a fully decorated Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. It is family sacrilege, but makes me happy to have some holiday cheer in our little house, and so far Sadie has left it alone.

We lounged around and played DDR and napped for the rest of the day. That night we met up with Stephen and Amanda at Open Eye for some coffee drinks before heading to the Station (10 year high school reunion, plus 10 dudes in kilts and a bagpiper), then to the Nightlight (a bizarre "sound" show... not our cup of tea, left after two "acts?"), tour around Chapel Hill to see it was dead as a doornail, then two huge plates of nachos and two shots of tequila at Milltown to warm up before heading back to the Station where there was now an awesome dance party of all the music that was big 10 years ago. Lots and lots of dancing, it was perfection!

Saturday, Paul, Sadie and I went on a long run in the forest, we did a little Christmas shopping at the mall with Amanda and Stephen, played a little DDR, then Trent and I went to our community center to watch Persepolis, a really great animated movie about growing up in Tehran. I highly recommend it. Kind of dark, but very educational.

Sunday, I went running again and we worked in the yard. Trent made me wreaths out of vines growing in our yard and I adorned them with trimmings from the Christmas tree and other yard goodies, and we shared our wreaths with Paul and Sheila, and Stephen and Amanda. Spreading holiday cheer.

It was a gorgeous day, so we went for a row on University Lake. It was my first time being in a pair (only having one oar), but luckily Trent is an amazing rower and we didn't flip over despite my lack of skills. I learned a lot and got a great workout. Home to turkey soup and baking lots of bread and cookies for the week ahead.

Quite a weekend, it was lovely to have the long holiday to celebrate and relax. I didn't worry about science, and now everything seems to be cooperating! Hooray.