Every two years, we visit the Portsmouth “Festival of Trees” during the Christmas holidays.  Our experience always includes:

1. People, lots and lots of people!  It’s always packed; the lines to see the decorated trees are very long and the parking lot is jammed packed.

2.  C-C-C-C-old!  Its always bone-chilling cold!  This year was no exception, for the first time ever we skipped the first house trees because the wait outside was brutally, bone-numbingly freezing. The adults mind it more than the kids!

3. Your partners in crime!   You always have a blast running around with your cousins. Everyone’s in a good mood, zipping, skipping, taking everything in!

4. Yummy # 1!   the free chowder always warms us up, at just the right time.

5.  Making a decision!  It’s always fun to decide which tree – out of dozens and dozens of decorated trees –  is our personal favorite.  Once we decide, we take our wooden popsicle “voting stick,” drop it in the container by our chosen tree, and cast our vote.  It’s more fun than voting for the President of the United States!

6.  Yummy # 2!  After an hour or two of tree viewing and bearing the cold, it’s always wonderful to go to the Japanese Steakhouse.  The chef cooks our food in front of us, making volcanoes out of stacked onions, lighting surprisingly hot fires and flipping food into our mouths (we try to catch things, but usually don’t).

Hooray for the 2013 Festival of Trees, one of our favorite nights during the holidays!