An El Nino Christmas

December 26, 2015

White House Christmas Tree

It was 72 degrees. The cherry trees were starting to bloom. We were wearing shorts and t-shirts while getting ready to celebrate the holidays. Easter you say? Why no - it was Christmas 2015. It was a bit hard to get into the Christmas spirit while wearing shorts and listening to "White Christmas," but it did make decorating outside easier. Anna enjoyed a busy December with no jacket required.

The season kicked off with a search for the Fagella family Christmas tree. This year, thanks to the balmy weather, Mom decided it would be nice to take a trip to a tree farm and cut down a tree. The setting was lovely and the task seemed easy, but it took two hours to find the perfect family tree (Theresa was looking for a particular type of tree but they were all too small). The other mission was to get a large tree since various members of the Kohler family would be visiting for the holidays. Normally the Fagellas pick out a tree and realize when they get it home that it is smaller than they thought. That was not the case this year.

The Fagella Family Christmas Tree

After identifying the tree, Joe cut it down. It took both Joe and Theresa to get it onto the plastic sled the tree farm provided to haul it to the front of the property. They quickly realized that they had picked a tree at the farthest point of the farm at the bottom of a hill. It took both Joe and Theresa to pull it up the hill to purchase with Anna excitedly asking the entire time, "Is it heavy? Are you tired?" When they finally got the tree up and bound, Joe and Theresa mistakenly thought they could get it on the car themselves. Let's just say additional help was required. When they got it home they realized that the tree was much bigger than they thought and took up a good portion of the living room. They are still not quite sure how we are going to get it out of the house after the holidays.

Anna had numerous events for the holiday season. She is a member of both band and choir this year, so there were several concerts. She had her first band concert, where she plays the drums. She also performed at the local high school and at Christmas Eve mass in the choir. Anna also had some school projects to complete before break, including a family tree for her Spanish class. She decided to do the Fagella side of the family and made the tree out of pasta with the family members represented by meatballs (she was going for the food theme). In between the events, we managed to make a trip to the White House Christmas tree. The big event for the season was the arrival of Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas.

The Fagella Meatball Tree

Grandma and Grandpa arrived on December 21 for a week-long visit. The got to see Anna's Christmas program at school. They also enjoyed a visit to Meadow Lark Botanical Gardens to see the Christmas lights as well as to the U.S. Botanical Gardens to see this year's train display. The big event for the Grandparents was their Christmas present - a new smart phone. Actually the present for Grandpa was learning that he could keep his existing phone and adding a separate line for Grandma to have her own phone. Both of them are texting like teenagers. It is sometimes difficult to get their attention if a text comes in. Grandma was also using her new phone to face time with her friends. Grandma is still learning all of her phone features. Anna was all too happy to help and has set Grandma's phone with all sorts of sound effects (including an old car honking when Grandpa calls). She also made Grandma's phone flash when it rings. No one is quite sure how to turn that off.

The visit concluded with Christmas Eve mass followed by a seafood dinner and presents. Santa left packages Christmas morning and the Elf on the Shelf flew back to the North Pole. Grandma and Grandpa flew out Christmas morning so they could spend the rest of Christmas in Ohio. It was a fun week in balmy weather. A big thanks to Grandma & Grandpa for making the trip. Merry Christmas!