So our front yard tree fell over in a storm last week. Woke up Thursday morning to my beautiful Sweet Acacia on its side. I called my gardener to come hoist it back up (this isn't the first time it fell over). "No way" he told me. It's a pretty big, very heavy tree. He showed me there were no roots on the side that fell, and the side it landed on snapped the roots. I was heart broken. But better now and not in 10 years when it would have gone through my neighbour's garage (no damage to his house this time, thankfully!). So my gardener sent me to a local nursery (I didn't even know this place existed!). They had TONS of
trees to choose from. I wanted something different... no thorns, has flowers (Sweet Acacia has sharp thorns and pretty yellow tufts of flowers in the spring). So the guy showed me about 10 different trees ... one we walked past he casually mentioned the name as we walked to another tree. But this tree caught my eye... white bark like the birch trees from back home. It was a Palo Blanco. No thorns, and has white flowers. BINGO!! He said they don't even carry that tree.... it was a return from one of the landscape companies. I was very happy with my choice... it's a smaller tree than the Acacia, and it won't have the shady canopy.... so our yard will have much more light now! People that have come over in the past few days comment on how totally different our yard looks now... and wonder initially if they're at the right house! I am already envisioning the Christmas lights that will go on that tree next December!! :) But it most definitely needs to do a lot of growing! Poor little thing can't even handle my bird feeders or hummingbird feeders... have to find some shepherd hooks for them now!
In case you didn't know this (and that means you don't know US)... Johnny is a DIE HARD New York Jets fan. So of course Nicolas is. And in due time, Max's blood will also run green. Santa was very nice to bring all the Gambino Boys a Jets jersey for Christmas. They all wore their jerseys yesterday after the Jets' win on Sunday. :)
So our front yard tree fell over in a storm last week. Woke up Thursday morning to my beautiful Sweet Acacia on its side. I called my gardener to come hoist it back up (this isn't the first time it fell over). "No way" he told me. It's a pretty big, very heavy tree. He showed me there were no roots on the side that fell, and the side it landed on snapped the roots. I was heart broken. But better now and not in 10 years when it would have gone through my neighbour's garage (no damage to his house this time, thankfully!). So my gardener sent me to a local nursery (I didn't even know this place existed!). They had TONS of 
trees to choose from. I wanted something different... no thorns, has flowers (Sweet Acacia has sharp thorns and pretty yellow tufts of flowers in the spring). So the guy showed me about 10 different trees ... one we walked past he casually mentioned the name as we walked to another tree. But this tree caught my eye... white bark like the birch trees from back home. It was a Palo Blanco. No thorns, and has white flowers. BINGO!! He said they don't even carry that tree.... it was a return from one of the landscape companies. I was very happy with my choice... it's a smaller tree than the Acacia, and it won't have the shady canopy.... so our yard will have much more light now! People that have come over in the past few days comment on how totally different our yard looks now... and wonder initially if they're at the right house! I am already envisioning the Christmas lights that will go on that tree next December!! :) But it most definitely needs to do a lot of growing! Poor little thing can't even handle my bird feeders or hummingbird feeders... have to find some shepherd hooks for them now!
In November I finally sold my store... phew! I finally have time to myself! To celebrate, we bought a new pet (since Johnny is allergic to cats and dogs, we couldn't go that route. So... here's Mango:
She's a Severe Macaw. She's about 2.5 years old. She's loud... and she bites. Well, not me anymore... but we're working on her... she's afraid of Johnny for some reason. Which makes us both sad. But it's only been a couple of months now... so I know she needs more time. :) 
He even gave them a trip to the Polar Express! We went on December 27th. It was Max's first time seeing snow.... and Nicolas hadn't seen snow since he was a toddler, so it was like his first time too. He LOVED playing in the snow! We're planning on going again next Christmas... and will make sure Nicolas is better dressed! Here's a some pics of our trip to the Polar Express....JPG)
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Max threw a snowball at me... and it hit the camera just as a snapped the picture.
Trying to look "mean".
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On the train.JPG)
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