Christmas has officially arrived in our beautiful house and I am thrilled.



I started out the morning by finishing my book (more on that tomorrow) while Aurelia napped and then played a little.

Then we took out the ornaments. I realized most of the lights were not working so we had to take another break. When Aurelia went down to nap, I drove to Walmart and bought a ton of new lights. Now we were ready to decorate. David helped me, of course.







And Aurelia watched us and was quiet, mostly.







And here’s the finished tree with the lights on. It was late at this point so there was no light out.







And here’s one with the lights off.







Yes, the tree is crooked. But I love it anyway. I love Christmas. I love smelling the tree. Seeing the twinkles. I loved every little thing about the holiday season. And now I am tired and need to rest before Aurelia wakes up for milk.

I’ve never been able to take good photos of our Christmas trees and this year is no exception. It’s right in front of the backyard which means there’s lots of backlight and my 50mm doesn’t work well since it’s a huge tree so I changed to the wide angle today and this is the best I could do. It’s a bit crooked but I love it none the less. It smells magical.



I bought Aurelia some puffs the other day and he’s enjoying them quite a bit. He likes playing with them as much as eating them. Take note of how many are stuck to his arms.

Lest you think it’s just the arms, several on the floor too.







He does like eating them, too. When I undressed him tonight to put him down, I noticed at least five stuck inside his clothes, maybe he was saving them for later.







I finished all my layouts and David’s book with the AMM kit from this month. I am still reading my book for the week but I might be able to finish tonight, if not, definitely tomorrow.



I’ve noticed a spike in comments lately, I am not sure where you’re coming from, but that you so much, knowing that people are here, reading, and communicating back really makes my heart happy.



Five days to my Big Picture Scrapbooking class on reclaiming my time. I am officially excited.

A few weeks ago I asked Jake if he’d be ok going to cut a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. My friend Diane said they did that last year and it was a lot of fun and I loved the idea. My wonderful husband, of course, agreed. As he went to do the morning trading at work this morning at 3:45am, the rest of us woke up at 6:30. We played, we got ready, Aurelia napped and we left the minute Jake got home.



I had read that it wasn’t raining in Half Moon Bay where the farm is but as it turned out, it was. Which is why this photo is as magnificent as it is. And this next one, too.

I’d read that the Grand Firs were the most pungent of all the trees and I wanted something that smelled a lot and would last the longest. So once we found our tree, Jake got to work. I tried to help but I am not sure I was useful at all.







Aurelia watched pretty quietly most of the time.







And when he wasn’t, his big brother was there to soothe him.







After we got the tree up and netted and tied, we rode the little train and listened to Christmas songs, we drank cider and even watched a super-short puppet show.



A bunch more hard work from Jake, a lot of trimming, a huge mess, and the tree is now in our house. I attempted to take a shot of it but trees and I, we don’t seem to get a long. I will make another attempt tomorrow, I promise.



After all the kids went to bed, I dug into the December kit from AMM and already finished three layouts. I have a few more to make and David’s school mini. I even made the 47th tag. Of course, I didn’t finish my book yet and still have my writing homework to do and six more items on the todo list but I will get to them all in due time. And, of course, tomorrow….we decorate the tree!



Christmas season has officially begun and I couldn’t be happier.

Ok, I know it’s a terrible shot but I wasn’t letting today pass without getting some sort of Thanksgiving shot.



Our day started out ok but went downhill quickly when Aurelia decided to skip his midday nap. He cried and cried so I finally gave up and we went out to the track so Jake could do his run.

Doesn’t he look amazing? While he was running David played and smiled and was generally happy.







Even Aurelia was smiling but don’t let that fool you, he was cranky.







Not this one, though. Sweet as ever.







When Jake finished, David did a run around the track, too.







Then we went home and I foolishly thought that Aurelia would finally fall asleep. But no. He slept for 20 minutes and he was up. While he was sleeping, I got all of our food into bowls and started cooking the broccoli and butternut squash. Even though he was sitting next to me after he woke up, he whined and cried the entire time. He wanted my attention on nothing but him. I then put him down at 4 again and he still wouldn’t take a nap so I finally just gave up.



I’m not one to care too much about Thanksgiving. I didn’t grow up here so I never had the tradition. And often times there’s too much family around. I am more of a one-on-one person and get easily stressed with too many people around, even if it’s the people I am closest to. And since we had no one visiting this year, I thought Jake was going to be happy skipping Thanksgiving altogether.



But it turned out he wanted to have it. So last night we went to Whole Foods and got a few items we loved: a roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, Israeli cous cous, mac’n’cheese, and stuffing. Today, he went to get rolls, cranberry sauce, and a pumpkin pie at the grocery store. I made the same butternut squash casserole from a week ago and some broccoli (with a little cheese and onions.) We had enough food for 16 people and it was really just me and Jake since David’s a picky eater and only wanted to eat rolls. (In the end he did eat some of the squash, chicken, mac’n’cheese, and stuffing, too. And pumpkin pie with ice cream of course.)







All in all, despite the lack of naps and much crying, it was a wonderful, peaceful and quiet thanksgiving. We’re all full, happy and feeling thankful for so much of what we have.



If you live in the US, I hope your Thanksgiving was special, too.