Sunday, November 30, 2008

Hunt for our Christmas tree...at Roba Farms


We had such a great day yesterday...didn't start off to well, but it sure did end well!!
I had forgotten to print off directions for my mother, but had asked hubby to write down the address so that my mother could type it into her garmen. He didn't. When they got to the house, of course, she requested it and in a rather snotty way (which is her way) she added why she would need it-treating me like a child of course. Burned me up immediately-adding to it too, was the fact that hubby was insistent that they could just follow us the 45 minutes up I-81N, never minding that they could possibly lose us and get lost. SO-I marched inside and printed off directions, like I should've in the first place....
Anywhoo-once we were on the road, I broke out my knitting and knit away....knitting always calms me down. Rather nice drive-gave me about 40 minutes of uninterruped knitting and the girls napped the whole way there. Hubby had downloaded great Christmas music so this made things very festive. We had never been to Robas' before, usually going to Beck's like I said in previous post, but since my father wasn't with us this year (he had double knee replacements and is immobile right now due to infection), we thought we'd try this out-staying more local. Boy, am I glad that we did...http://www.robafarms.com/ is a wonderful place!! We first went to the Lakeland farm, where we took a tractor ride to the trees-for-cutting area. It was simply beautiful! Take a look:


These pics are good-but really don't do it justice! The place is wonderful! They provide the saws and wagons and all of the trees are tagged (!) by color for size, and also identified by type and price. How nice, right?? Makes picking one very easy! We picked a fraser fur, 7-8 feet tall, and hubby cut it down very nicely. They even have these machines that shake the tree to get the loose needles off and then one to tie it all up. They carried it over to the wagon part of the tractor ride and we hopped back on for the ride back to our cars to pay. They also drilled a hole in the bottom to make putting it in the tree stand easier and also gave us a free tree bag! Perfect!!



We paid and then went over to the other Roba farm about 8 miles away b/c Santa and the reindeer are there-REAL REINDEER!! I'm not kidding!! Santa was terrific-really nice and great with the girls, and the reindeer were something else!! We walked around for a bit and fed some farm animals and then topped off the day with some hot cocoa and cider donuts....what could be better, right? Perfect!



All in all, it was a wonderful way to start off the holiday season! I also mailed out my Christmas cards (most of them) so I feel like I'm de-stressing with each thing I cross of my "to-do" list. I have only a few more things to get for Christmas, but have a whole lot of knitting to do still.....that is weighing heavy on my mind....I have to:

1. Finish hubby's sweater-did the back, and most of the right front. Still have the sleeves, left front, blocking, seaming and the zipper on this bad boy.

2. Knit up the comfy raglan sweater for my best friend Sherri-I really want to do this but I think I may run out of time...

3. A few beaded bracelets for the shop and for last-minute gifts..


4. My sis's hat and mittens-she wants these for Christmas too...yikes


We'll see....here's hoping, right??













Saturday, November 29, 2008

Yarny Girl is Born!!

Finally, I decided to commit to this blogging thing-since I'm constantly thinking of knitting, yarn and all things yarny-I thought that maybe this would help me organize my brain...we'll see....

Today we are going to cut down our Christmas tree! Every year we do this-at Beck's Farm in Hope, NJ. However, this year we decided to stay more local at Roba's Farm in Dalton, PA. It is a first for all of us. Hoping all will be great! How bad can it be right?? Anywhoo-hubby's driving so I am guaranteed atleast 45 minutes to and fro the farm of car-knitting-one of my fav. things. It is such a good distraction for me b/c I hate to be on the highways out here-too many trucks. So I will happily click away and not be bothered by a thing....

I am working on the retrofit cardigan for hubby-really crossing my fingers that this will be done by Christmas. Oh boy-I'm going to be knitting my fingers off! Between this, a sweater for my BFF that has not even been started yet, last-minute gifts for my sis, the librarian, and the bus driver (fingerless mitts??), I am busy. BUT-christmas shopping is almost completely done, cards have been mailed and decorating starts tomorrow, so am I really in that bad shape?? I don't think so...

Ok-if I'm going to make it to chop the tree, I've got to get in the shower....will type more later!