Get a Christmas tree.

It was unbelievably cold on Friday and the last thing I wanted to do was stand outside picking a Christmas tree, and we usually actually take a ridiculous amount of time to decide, but this was what we did anyway. We always go to a local shop in downtown Ann Arbor called Downtown Home and Garden. I love this store so much, and they have a sweet selection of trees. In the bitter cold, I was determined that we were going to make a fast selection. Lucky for me, the store made it easy. This year, they had a new (to them – and to us) variety, called a Nordman Fir – a beautiful conical tree with excellent needle retention; that’s what we went with, and I love it!

But the real fun of this activity was what the owner of the shop had brought in as a surprise for customers:

baby farm animals!

Look at those adorable animals!! I was dying. Goats, sheep, an alpaca, a baby donkey, and something called a zebu – a little water buffalo. They were so, so sweet.

Tiny Dancer chatting up the alpaca

I had desperate thoughts of absconding with one of the fiber-bearing animals, but I refrained.

Little Buddha charming the alpaca

Little Buddha checking out the alpaca’s teeth

look at that face!!

Last year, after we got our tree, we went across the street to Sweetwater’s Cafe for a couple of slices of chocolate cake. For Little Buddha, one good experience is always the making of a new tradition, so of course we followed up our tree-buying, store-browsing, animal-petting experience with our new chocolate cake tradition.

It was a great afternoon!

This activity is part of this year’s Advent Activity Calendar. You can find more Advent activities by searching the category “Advent Activity Calendar,” or by referring to the page “Advent Activity Calendar,” where I have tried to catalogue all the activities from 2009 until now.