It seems that at general conference there is always at least one talk devoted to trees. This year there seemed to be many references. And that is where I find myself, completely surrounded by trees. The back of our new home is being engulfed by trees. There is a little forest that stretches for a few acres behind our house. The kids love to wander out there and visit the long abandoned tree house someone built years ago. Just behind our house there is a little stone wall someone must have spent days building. Supposedly they are all over Connecticut. A little reminder that long ago someone cleared the land and farmed this area, but the farm is long gone, completely swallowed by trees. No one would guess that this forest is all new growth, all that remains is the ancient wall surrounded by trees.
Now the trees are trying to take over my grass. Actually, they already succeeded. The previous tenants failed to keep the leaves off the grass and the back yard is completely barren. Dirt and mud are constantly tracked into the house from the back yard. It's so annoying! I'm fighting back. Justin and I planted grass a few weeks ago. According to the internet it's the perfect time of year to do so. We got the seed down and then it started raining and the weather turned cold. I carefully watched it everyday for a week, vigilantly keeping little feet from trampling any seedling that might emerge and making sure it was appropriately watered, but nothing came up. Then I got distracted. More important things took up my time. I began to rake leaves, and chop vines and clear out old dying trees and brutishly uproot any acorns that began to sprout. I gave up on the grass. But just yesterday I looked again and realized that the grass is growing! It's very tender, but it's growing! I'm so excited! I have fantastic visions of a thick emerald carpet stretching out into the woods, soft and delightful, but Justin laughs and tells me it will never be. I know he's probably right, but it's still so exciting. The only problem is that now the leaves are falling and all of my tender grass is suffocating. What to do? If I rake, I will probably tear out all the grass and if blow the leaves away the grass may become tramatized as well, and of course if I do nothing it will surely be killed as well. Oh well, at least it's just grass, and I did prove to Justin that it can grow back there! I'll probably just blow the leaves and if it all dies at least we can try again in the spring when it will have all summer to flourish before the trees kill it with their treachourous leaves.
Back to the trees. I find it so fascinating to work in the trees. There are vines everywhere. I feel like there should be a confernce talk devoted to trees and watching out for the destructive vines that kill them. It really is fasinating. There are several trees between my house and my neighbors and I have spent an extensive amount of time between the two houses raking leaves and pulling up vines so they won't kill the trees. There have been many times that I have chopped down a vine and as I began to unwrap it from the tree realized that the tree was completely dead. It had no leaves, all the leaves I could see actually belonged to the vine and after the vine was removed the tree simply fell over with only a gentle push. It's a very empowering thing to be able to push a tree over. It really is kind of addicting to work in the trees and remove the vines. There are two types of vines in my trees, grapevines and killer vines. Really they both kill, so I chop them both out. As I chop, I must reflect, what are the vines in my life? My friends? my trials? my temptations? For right now it is anything that distracts me. I feel like I'm so busy all the time. There is so much mundane work that has to be done all of the time, laundry, bathrooms, leaves; let alone all of the little projects I'm itching to do to make my house more beautiful, pleasant and stylish. Then there are the groups and clubs: literature group, quilting group, PTA. My church calling, boy scouts, piano lessons. Exercising, cooking dinner, facebook and blog hopping. What should stay and what should go? What is helping my grass to grow and what is choking my trees to death? As I try to figure that out I realize I must go inside and nourish that which is most important. Rock the baby, tell a story, make sure teeth are brushed and toenails clipped. Kiss the husband who wanders in at 11:00 p.m. (a long hard day). The grass might die, the vines might kill the trees, the leaves will surely take over the entire forest. (How can they not?!) But, inside my home, that which is most important will surely thrive.
We decided to go to Washington DC for Christmas. I didn't want to bring all the presents so we opened them on the Saturday before. Here are a few pictures:
Nathan had a little song presentation at school. He learned the words and sign language to Rudolf the red nose reigndeer and the 12 days of Christmas. It was pretty cute. 
Our family with Grandma Rowberry, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Barb, and Aunt Kristy at the Barlow Center. We spent a lot of time here playing games and visiting. It was fun. We hadn't seen Ryan and Barb for a long time. It was really great to see them. 
