Christmas Tree & Castle Rock

We FINALLY went to pick out a Christmas tree! Hooray! The only place that I knew to go was the grocery store so Collin asked for some ideas at his office. The office manager told Collin that her son's baseball team was selling trees to raise money for their team. On Saturday, after a ton of errands we finally stopped for a tree. They had a bunch of trees laying on a pile, all wrapped up but the guy insisted that he cut one open so that we could see how beautiful it was. Collin told him that we'd take it as is but the knife came out he made sure that we saw it before buying. It was perfect and smelled soo good! (I think it's a Douglas Fir.) So we payed for it and they put it in the back of Collin's truck...as is, unwrapped. We both gave each other a funny look as they tossed the sprawling 7ft tree on the bed of the truck. Okie dokie then, I guess that's how we'll take it. When we got home Collin somehow managed to carry the tree up all four flights of stairs by himself...but not before dropping it down half of the first flight! It survived.

Collin's pheasant tail

Bird's nest for good luck

Pheasant wings

We planned to get wayyy more decorations but since Suki keeps attacking the ones that we have and the lower half of the tree no longer has ANY ornaments, we put that idea on hold for this year.

On Sunday, Collin and I headed up to the town of Castle Rock to check out the outlets. There is an antique store in Castle Rock called The Barn that I've been eyeing on the internet for some time now. I FINALLY got to go but I wasn't looking forward to it as much as I normally would have because I knew Collin's attention span was going to be way too short for my liking. 

The Barn is an antique shop and craft/gift shop, crafters and artists can "rent" a room in the barn (like this one) to display and sell their work.

Well, it must have been my lucky day because Collin pretty much loved (he would say "liked") the store! We spent an hour looking around and picking out Christmas gifts for our families (I could have spent 3 hours but one with Collin is just dandy too!) I DEFINITELY plan to go back!

After our unexpected hour at The Barn we drove a few minutes out of town to the outlets. Collin is in serious need of some more clothes for work so that was our mission. 

They had awesome sales and Collin even bought me another hat. I'm SO into hats these days. Well, I actually have been for years but I finally found the guts to actually wear them! 

Very different than my first one, which is more like a 1920's style wool cloche hat. This one is kind of a mix between a fedora and a cowboy hat. I guess this is the start of my hat collection! 

After Collin made out pretty well at the outlets we were starving. Since the antique shop was "downtown" we got to see the cute little town of Castle Rock on our way in and out. On the way out I saw a little bar that advertised "the best wings in town" so obviously Collin wanted to stop there for dinner. We parked and as Collin was about to open the door he gave me a look and I quickly said "um, let's go somewhere else!" It sounded like a biker bar fight was about to break out and I wasn't about to prance in there wearing a puffy vest and a new wool hat. Less than half a block down the street was the Castle Cafe which looked like a safer bet.

I was happy to see that they had "fishbowls!" Mario's Fishbowl is a bar in Morgantown WV that my friends and I frequented quite often and who served beer out of glasses like the one below. I was pretty excited and Collin even knew what I was talking about because he's been there with me too!

A Fishbowl!

 Our food was great! Home style and homemade. They're apparently 'famous' for their fried chicken and after seeing our neighbors meal I know why. They brought out a huge platter piled with pieces of yummy looking fried chicken...for two people. Our waitress, Janice, was also the sweetest person ever...I asked her which of their homemade soups she recommended and she brought me a healthy sample of each to decide for myself. Thank ya, Janice!

The main street of Castle Rock (Wilcox St.) had lights stung across for Christmas. The entire town was very festively decorated actually. I loved it!

A nice weekend!

Tonight I tried my hand at Parmesan Crusted Chicken Piccata. It turned out pretty darn well actually! (not on Carmine's level but tasty none the less!) After dinner we drank some prosecco and played Yahtzee! Haha!

A good night!!
Hoping yours is too!