Prep and Landing

Tonight we continued our Christmas tradition of doing nothing but snuggling under a blanket, beside the Christmas tree, a warm blaze burning in the fireplace. We had some Christmas movies on the television, one of which was "Prep and Landing," which is a great short cartoon from a few years ago. It's finally on DVD, which Daddy picked up today. Madison turned to us afterwards and announced, "That was a good movie." Yep, it's a fun Christmas movie for just about anyone. We also see there will be a sequel this season, so we're excited about seeing that as well. The weather today was once again perfect for this sort of activity: it was cold today. It did in fact flurry a bit, but the weather was just warm enough that the snow was mixed with rain. A wintery mix is what it's called. Still, it's amazing how excited everyone gets from watching small white flakes descend from the heavens. Even though it was on the surface a pretty grey sort of day, we were still warm in our hearts because of the season.

Today we put up a tree at the office - a live tree! It's decorated and sits right next to my desk. It smells great! I miss the smell of pine most of all when it comes to a live tree, but we're pretty content with our artificial tree. It looks very real - we spent a LONG time looking for just the right tree: our thinking was if we'd have it for a while, we'd better make it a good one. I feel it is. First of all, it's tall. Much taller than any tree I've ever had before. Of course, in our new great room, it doesn't seem quite as tall - that's a huge ceiling in there in the new home. That was one of the things that drew us to the house to begin with.

Anyway, the biggest thing is the hassle. We save so much in time and effort by simply hauling our artificial tree upstairs when it is Christmas time. And taking it back down when the season is done. We used to go out and cut one down, place it in the stand balanced just right and not tilting, and then fill the bottom with water. And then clean up the needles. Putting it on the car was an ordeal too - I just remembered that. Anyway, we don't do that anymore. Ye-Ye and Nana, however, still do get a live tree. It's a nice tree that we get to see every Christmas morning. But we're okay with the artificial one, so long as it looks right - which it does. I'll post pictures here soon, I'm sure.

As for the pine smell I miss so much, I now get it right at the office, right at work. So all is well!

Madison had music and school today. In fact, with school, it was her return back after a two-week break! Time for all of us to get back into the swing of things - the routine is back. Madison enjoyed classes today, but was pretty worn out by day's end. She was ready for bed. Daddy read her another story, a Christmas story, before bed:

MADISON'S BOOK CLUB

This is a sweet little book with some very interesting animation. Madison enjoys all of the Little Miss Spider books, but this one is obviously nice to pull out this time of year. For Christmas, Little Miss Spider wants a friend to play with outside - and she gets her wish. The story is told in rhyme, but the artwork is the thing that draws you into her world. It's all very colorful, and very cheerful - just the perfect kind of story to read before bedtime, and a great story to read before Christmas!

Dancer: How we going to make it through all this snow?
Dasher: Laughing all the way, my friend. Laughing all the way.