Suzy and Joel and Owen and Evie

So we had a nice tree for the holidays and Owen didn’t knock it over and only destroyed one ornament. But for some reason it never took on any water. Day after day the needles kept falling off and as New Year’s approached even just walking by the tree would set off a shower of needles onto the floor. We did a lot of vacuuming.When it was time to take the tree out to the curb we knew it was going to lose a lot of needles on the short trip from the living room to the front door, but we really didn’t think that it would lose 99 percent of the needles in the house. Everyone else on the street put their green tree out on the curb and ours looked like it been fried. (Joel is pointing to the remaining 1 percent of green that remained.)

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Even though Owen’s vocabulary is limited to just a handful of words, he did manage to act out how we got the tree. He used his toys, Play-Doh, and lots of hand gesture and sound effects. It’s nice to see him telling stories even though it is more like charades than anything else.In the top photo we are taking the hayride to the tree fields.And here the tree is on the roof of the car.

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This year we decided to try Connecticut for a Christmas tree after last year’s trek northward in New York took hours. Of course there was an article in the NY Times the following week about how Fairfield County had the highest tree prices in the nation so maybe CT wasn’t the most economical locale, but it was closer. Owen had fun because we took a hayride out into the fields of trees (he likes tractors). He also enjoyed wielding the saw which perhaps wasn’t the best thing for a two-year old to play with, but he carried it safely and used it wisely, only sawing stumps.This photo of Joel and poor little dead tree was a joke at the time, but little did we know that it was in fact an omen, a peek into the future. Go the “The Tree–Part 3″ to see how our story ends.

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This year, instead of going directly to some family member’s house for Thanksgiving, we went to Madison, Wisc. for a few days first. Partly, this made it easier to spend time with both Joel’s dad - whose living just north of LaCrosse in the southwestern part of the state - and his mom, who’s in the northeaster part by Green Bay.It was great to get back to Madison for Joel - it was probably eight years since he had last been there. Of course, it’s somewhat different going back with a family of one’s own. But one thing didn’t change - visits to Michael’s Frozen Custard!It would have been nicer to go when it wasn’t so cold, but that didn’t slow Owen down when it came to playing in the parks. Here, Owen and Sue are having fun with a digger at a park off of Mineral Point Road.

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A bit behind the times, but Owen definitely was more engaged in his second birthday than he was during his first. He was more interested in the cake and also much more interested in opening his presents!Not only was Owen able to open his gifts, but what was really endearing was that he would get excited with the present and want to play with it immediately! He’d play with a toy for ten minutes before we dragged him away to open another present. It really stretched out the unwrapping - it took two days to get through them! Owen really appreciated each present, and thanks to everyone who sent him toys.Here Owen’s opening a Little People’s firehouse from his Nonnie in Wisconsin.

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