Ho Ho Ho!

It was Christmas Prep Day in the Stants family today. Steve dragged in 15 boxes worth of Christmas tree and ornaments and decorations from the garage, and we all worked on putting up our tree and all the goodies along with it. Steve put lights around Kaylee's room window, and we got up a Nativity scene and got out our Christmas glasses and candles and just all that Christmassy stuff. We also have an agreement this year: to burn all the beautiful Christmas Candles. Usually I won't let anybody burn them because they're so pretty. But this year, we're going to let it rip. It took us most of the day to do this, but other than our angel for the tree top not lighting up like she's supposed to, we are DONE, and even the boxes are back in the garage until it's time to take everything down sometime in February. ;) We've had this tree for a long time now; the original tree stand broke so now we've rigged it into a real one, a big iron one, and it's not overly stable. And they make trees now with the lights already on it. Now that's an attractive thought! For a few years we did real trees, because I LOVE the smell of pine. Once in awhile we might have to do that again, but once we decide this tree financially has met its burden enough that we can get another one, I'm thinking I like the concept of pre-lit trees myself. ;)

I also did all of our laundry today, cleaned up the kitchen and dining room, Steve rearranged furniture in the front living room so we could put up our tree, I put a lot of clothes away, did some vacuuming and sweeping, taped up Christmas cards on our door, and all in all had a busy, productive day. But more importantly, It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas around here!

It felt good to accomplish all that from noon on, actually. Now, on to buying presents to put under that tree! :O

Here's another quote from the Jan Karon book that cracked me up. Usually I'm not a big fan of women stereotype jokes, but I thought this one was amusing enough to repeat. ;)

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea."

~Robert Heinlein

Yep, I still think that's funny. Not a serious commentary on relationships or theology, just funny. And definitely true--when it comes to cats. ;)

We're watching the Colts game right now, and they are spanking the Ravens 30 to 0 right now, which, unless something awful happens in the last half, will guarantee their playoffs position. It's about time for them to come out with a bang!

My flights for today were cancelled due to a little ice storm that came through. Accumulation of about 1/2" of freezing rain that turned to ice on everything today was actually rather pretty, but made us wish we'd double-checked the generator and made sure it would run should we lose power. Fortunately, it never got that bad, and we are powered up and just fine. However, I do kind of wonder about school, ballet and cheer tomorrow.

Well, I took a couple of photos today, though not as many as I usually do when the tree goes up. I'll take more later. For now, here's Kaylee checking out the lights to make sure they work, and in front of the tree after we get it done...