On the Road Friday to Bentleyville USA

Hello, it is cold here in Wisconsin!

Our trip today will be a little bit cold too.

So grab a cup of hot chocolate and snuggle in to your favorite sweater.

We are heading to Bentleyville, USA

Duluth, MN.

 2012 was a special birthday for me, because my birthday is 12/12! I had the best day! My hubby and two boys spent the entire day with me. We went cross country skiing at Pattison State Park, went out to eat and then went to Bentleyville USA, Tour of Lights.

We will not make it to Bentleyville this year. If you have the opportunity, you will be in for a real treat. And Bentleyville will be celebrating 10 years! WOW!

Hey, no worries if you can not make it, we are on the road right now.

Get ready.

Get set.

Here we go!

Lights!

And music. As you walk along Christmas music is playing. You get free hot chocolate and cookies.

 

 The amazing tree! Guess what? The tree is set to the music. So it flashes to the beat.

 Santa!

 Duluth at night! Beautiful!

I think it is so amazing how the city of Duluth puts this on each year.

They have a skating rink and warming house.

They also have indoor bathrooms and a gift shop.

This is so fun to walk into.

 Several folks were taking photos here. 

It is so pretty.

 Atticus is a big fan of Thomas. So he really liked this one.

"This is so Cool!" yells Atticus.

See you next time Bentleyville USA!

 If you do get a chance to go, let me know how you like it.

Click here 

Do you have a city close to you that puts on a unique light display?

Do you drive around town to look at Christmas lights?

Thank you for coming along with me to Bentleyville!

Treasure in the Christmas Tree

We cut down a tree from my parents woods each year. Some years they can look like a real Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but we do not care. We just enjoy the hunt for the tree together in my parents woods and all voting on that special tree to be called our Christmas tree. This year we picked out a cute spruce. It is a smaller tree than what we normally cut down, but we all loved it and decided to make it our special tree for 2013. We live 2 hours away from my parents, so the tree has a ride back to our house. 

This year we received a surprise. We did not notice the birds nest in the tree when we first cut it down in the woods. Probably because of the high grass around the tree. My son Sam helped me get the tree inside the house. As we put the tree into the stand, we noticed the treasure, a birds nest.

The first thing my son, Atticus said was, "Wow, that little nest made it on the ride home."

The ride is in the back of our pick up, with the wind blowing. And lately we have had some very windy days around here.

 

We did not know what kind of birds nest it was, so the research began. When studying nature, my favorite book to go to is Anna Botsford Comstock - Handbook of Nature Study

And yes, we found it. The Song Sparrow. The nest is usually placed on the ground or in low bushes not more than five feet from the ground; it varies much in both size and material; it is sometimes constructed of coarse weeds and grasses; and sometimes only fine grass is used.

Have you noticed a little brown bird singing a very sweet song in the early spring? Did the song sound as if set to the words "Little Maid! Little Maid! Little Maid! Put  on the teakettle, teakettle-ettle-ettle"?

Our Treasure in the Christmas Tree

 The Song Sparrow

He does not wear a Joseph's coat of many colors, smart and gay

His suit is Quaker brown and gray, with darker patches at his throat.

And yet of all the well-dressed throng, not one can sing so brave a song.

It makes the pride of looks appear a vain and foolish thing to hear

In "Sweet, sweet, sweet, very merry cheer."

A loft place he does not love, he sits by choice and well at ease

 in hedges and in little trees, the stretch their slender arms above

The meadow brook; and then he sings till all the field with pleasure rings;

Ans so he tells in every ear, that lowly homes to heaven are near

In "Sweet, sweet, sweet, very merry cheer."

Henry Van Dyke  

How about you, do you put up a real tree?
Have ever found a treasure in the branches of your tree?

Happy Wednesday!

Wishbone

 Hello Friends,

Did you have a fun, relaxing Thanksgiving?

We enjoyed time with family. It was wonderful.

Each Thanksgiving I am in charge of the table decorations.

 This garden season my sister grew white pumpkins. She had a fabulous crop and needed to share. She kind of had white pumpkins like some folks have zucchini. 

I painted MOD PODGE on the top part of the pumpkin and sprinkled gold glitter on.

I used just the first initial of our name for the name tag. 

 All set.

And now for the wishbone. This is not our turkey wishbone, we forgot it at my parents. I made chicken  dumpling soup this weekend and decided to let the chicken wishbone be the star in this blog post. :-)

Do you keep the wishbone? Do you have a family tradition on when or who gets to break the wishbone?

For the past years our boys are the lucky ones to snap the wishbone.

What was your wish?