yuletide fun

we finally decorated our christmas tree. FINALLY. and i have to be honest and say its a sad little tree. i mean, our trees have to be relatively small bc our ceilings are only 8', but this one is especially sad. droopy limbs and weak needles that fall off if you so much as breathe on them {and yes she has been watered diligently}. i can say she is the straightest tree weve had in years.
we love her, and she is ours.

can you guess which ornaments bennett helped with?

since stephen and i were married the week before christmas, many if not most of our wedding gifts were christmas-related.  heck, we even had a christmas shower.  one of the best gifts we received was the big red tree holder.  i cant find a picture of it and i refuse to remove our tree skirt to take a picture from fear that the entire tree will turn to a dust of loose pine needles.  basically it is huge, red, steel, and HUGE.  did i say that already?

we have had it for five years now and for five years we have not been able to find a tree skirt to cover it completely {even the big expensive ones}.  so this year i decided to make one, and it was surprisingly easy.  its just a white/cream linen/cotton blend sewn onto a quilted backing.  i have a burlap border to sew around the outside but havent made it that far yet.  i am just so happy "big red" is covered completely for once.

bennett hanging the ornaments

bennett hugging the ornaments

in an outfit as dressed by daddy. {who apparently is color blind}

the type A factor of my personality really shines through during christmas tree-decorating time.  i like the tree to be "balanced".  ornaments strategically placed by shape, color and status.  and i love that all our ornaments are different.  little pieces of history - each with its own story and own meaning.  ornaments we received as gifts, ones we bought together, old ones from our childhood, and new ones for our future.  this year, the joy of having my boys {both of them} help with the decorating placed my tree-OCD-ness on the side.

for about ten minutes.

that is until huge, gaudy, cheap, or "filler" ornaments usually reserved for the back of the tree started making appearances in the front.  or right up there centerstage below the star.  or a cluster of similarly shaped/colored ornaments gathered in a bunch about eye-height.  or a big heavy ornament was placed on the very tip of a tiny week branch and came to a rest about four feet lower than originally placed.

i ever so kindly and politely explained why this is not appropriate christmas-tree styling, and soon my helpers took their "helping" to the sidelines.

they were good cheerleaders and i of course left all the ones bennett helped with.  bc their placement was so precise and the imperfection was PERFECT.

*****************************************************

today it was a muggy, foggy seventy-something degrees outside.
today santa visited our playgroup. {bless him}

the kids were in awe.  some more than others.  bennett was the first to receive his gift and thought it wonderful that santa knew to ask him about airplanes, trains, and even dora.  bennett stood there and nodded his head with enthusiastic "uh HUH!"'s in response to santas questions.

he wouldnt sit ON santa's lap, but was happy to sit next to him on the sofa and show him the thomas the train toy that was NOT his, the toy that santa gave another child but apparently bennett thought should have been his. {santa now has ideas for additional bennett gifts this year...}


santa also came and visited me a couple weeks ago.

we were in desperate need of one, seeing that our current vacuum was from the stone ages and made the house smell and wouldnt pick up anything that weighed more than a flea.  stephen and i were planning on giving one to each other for christmas until my mom told me how much she loved hers.  and it was under $100 from wal mart.  santa was on that thing like white on rice
he knows me so well.
and i love him for that.

*****************************************************

today while bennett was napping and i was wrapping presents my sis came by with the movie "UP". neither of us knew what to expect, but i have to say it was superb. hilarious...witty dry humor. seriously the writers of these things should be paid well. if you have seen it, then you will "get" the following picture of our sweet, pitifully hilarious pup steele:

in his "collar of shame"

he had a dewclaw incident awhile back where one of his all but fell off.  he had quick surgery and afterward it was still at risk of coming off again {especially since stephen takes him hunting a lot} and the vet thought we should just remove it completely {which is like removing a finger}. big surgery. stitches. hence the collar of shame.

this is all for now,

i think...

:)