Green Smoothies with Aloe Juice, Weird Fruit Things and Christmas Trees

We have finally unpacked everything that we were planning on unpacking at our new place and are slowly getting acclimated. One side of the garage is packed to the ceiling with the other stuff that we aren't going to unpack, but there's plenty of space for one of the cars on the other side of the garage. That's "Little Red's" spot when we bring him down after Christmas.

I have found a new hair place, new nail place, two new vets for Phantom (one is a cancer specialist), new places to shop, etc. There's an overabundance of grocery stores and pharmacies in the area in all directions around us. Take your pick. We also found a farmer's market that is very, very close. The produce is AMAZING! My green smoothies have never tasted better.

While at the farmer's market we discovered this Aloe juice drink. It comes in different fruity flavors that are all good, but I really like the pineapple flavor the best. We have been adding this to the green smoothies. The Murph takes his produce and protein powder to work and makes his smoothie for lunch sometimes.

I really love this New Zealand whey protein powder made from grass fed cows. I feel healthier just reading the label!

We decided to try these for the first time. They are like grapefruits, only sweeter and were very good, but I have no idea what they are called. Pommelo or something... maybe.... ??

Yes, Pomelo. (I had to google it) They are the grandparents of the grapefruit. (that's what google said)

I still add cilantro and kale and a few different fruits, usually a banana and pear or strawberries. I add the cilantro because it helps remove toxins, such as mercury, from the body and I had high levels when I tested two or three years ago. I haven't retested yet to see if the mercury levels have gone down, but hopefully they have.

 It doesn't hurt continuing to eat the cilantro and I still have one silver filling left in my tooth so until I get it out, I will assume I am still getting mercury leaching out of it. I can't wait to have NO silver fillings left in my mouth. I had no idea the dangers of them when I had them put in.

Finding a local dentist is another thing on my list!

The cats have settled in somewhat. Phantom is okay wherever we are. Ed is pretty cool and laid back too.

 Cadence - not so much! He disappears up under the box springs during nap time and we don't see him for awhile. He feels safer there.

I put two Christmas trees up over Thanksgiving weekend. These are the only two trees I moved down here. All the others were given to charity. I really miss my big, gynormous tree, but it was too heavy to move and was over 10 years old anyway. Time to buy another big tree when we purchase our own house down here. After this move, I'm all for getting rid of everything rather than moving it. Packing, moving it, then unpacking it....

Next time I think I'll just get rid of everything, move with nothing and start over with all new stuff!

Yeah!

It's Not Even Thanksgiving Yet But I Did It Anyway

I went ahead and put the Christmas trees up earlier this year, even though I haven't put ornaments on them yet.  I usually wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving to put the tree/trees up, but this year we may be at the beach that weekend, so I went ahead and put them up early.

If you remember, last year I put up five trees.  This year I'm down to three.  One in the living room, one  in the family room and one down in the boy's "apartment".  The tree above is the family room tree and the one below is the Boy's tree.  I thought he would like having one of his own this year when he gets home from college.  He seemed to like it last year although he didn't really have much to say about it.

I thought Phantom would like it if I put his cat bed under the tree to give him a comfy spot.

The cats get all excited when I get the Christmas decorations out.  They love sleeping under the trees.  Phantom has already taken over the living room tree below.  I had it in the family room last year, but it's so big I moved it this year.  It's too tall for this house.  The living room ceiling is no higher than the family room.  It's hard to cram a 9 ft tree under an 8 ft ceiling.

My obsession with Christmas trees goes way back.  When I was a kid, I would always start pulling the tree out the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We always had artificial trees instead of real ones.  That made it easier.

When I was in college, I put a pathetic little 4 ft tree with ugly decorations up in my apartment.  I brought it with me when I married my first husband, the Boy's father, who just happens to be Jewish and didn't really appreciate having a Christmas tree in his house.  I still remember the fight we had when his grandmother, who was an Orthodox Jew, was going to come for a visit and I refused to hide the tree in a closet.

I don't remember what we did with the tree during her visit.  Probably stuck it in a bedroom temporarily.  It was very offensive!

Once the Boy came along I felt the need for a bigger tree so I traded the 4 ft tree in for a 6 ft tree.  The Boy's dad was kind of use to my tree by then so he didn't say anything.  His grandmother had passed so  the tree wasn't going to cause any major family crisis.  I upgraded the ornaments too, from super tacky to mid-level tacky.

My first Christmas after the divorce was final was a glorious one.  I bought the biggest, fullest pre-lit tree my ceiling could handle.  The one I now have crammed in the living room.   That baby can take some popcorn off those 80's ceilings!

When it was delivered to the house, the box was so heavy that the Boy, who was 11 at the time, and I had to drag the box around to the back yard, open it and take the tree section by section into the house.  It barely fit under the ceiling in all it's pre-lit gloriousness.

Eventually, I decided it would be even better to have a tree in every room.  I got over that idea after a couple of years.  Too much, even for an obsessed Christmas tree lover like me.

The entire reason I never converted to Judaism when I married the Boy's dad can totally be blamed on the Christmas tree.  But that's an entirely different story.  Sort of.  I could call it "The Rabbi and the Christmas Tree."

Packing Up The Christmas Decorations

Well, it's finally here.  The day I have been dreading, but knew it would come.  Time to take down all the Christmas decorations and pack them away.  It's been really great and super festive having all five trees up and all the other Christmasy stuff all over the house, but what a job to get it all down!  The cats are really going to miss them too.  Their new favorite spots to hang out were under those trees.  I think they have been nibbling on some of them too because we've found Christmas tree looking green things intermingled with some hair balls in the dining room.   At least they are too old to try to climb the trees and knock the ornaments off.  I went through a couple of years of that with Phantom and Cadence.  I would decorate the tree and the next morning ornaments would be everywhere except on the tree.  After a few nights of this I just gave up and left the ornament on the floor for them to play with.   It was no fun for them after that.

The house is covered in fake pine needles, snow glitter, cat fur and dust balls.  Taking down the trees was only a start.  Now it's time to start cleaning.  The cats weren't as happy with the tree going down as they were with the trees going up.  I know how they feel.  I like the less cluttered look in the house now though.  The Boy hasn't even noticed anything different around the house.  Lately, we only see him when he's hungry.

Tomorrow I am tackling the outside decorations.  It's time to get on with the new year.   I don't think I will put as many trees up next year either.

Tree's gone, but Ed and Boo's favorite chair is back.

Christmas Decorations all packed up.

The Murph Family Christmas Trees by Barbie

Living Room Christmas Tree.  The "Glamour" Tree with silver and white decorations and a sparkly silver tree skirt.   My favorite.

Dining Room Tree.  The only white Christmas Tree with multicolored lights, all the other trees are green with white lights.  I call this the "Mardi Gras" tree because of the strings of Mardi Gras beads used as garland.

Family Room 9 ft Tree.  I love this one too.  This one is the "Music and Fashion" tree with mostly red and gold ornaments.  I love the burlap garland with the music notes from Pottery Barn.  I wish I had bought another roll of it last year.  I also love the little dresses and shoes and the hanging Santa Claus suits that are on this tree and the musical ornaments.

Office Tree.  This one is the "Snow Skiing/Lodge" Tree with gondola ornaments, snow ski, snow shoes and mitten ornaments.  

Another view of the Snow ski Tree.  I love the skiing Santa ornament on the right above the gondola.

Downstairs tree in the Boy's "apartment".  A lot of the ornaments were made by him when he was younger.    This one is "The Boy's" Tree.

Another view of the family room tree with the angel precariously balanced on top.

It's a little crowded up here!  Don't try to cram a 9ft tree under an 8 ft ceiling...