Putting Up the Ole' Tree

So, true to form, our kids cajoled us the day after Thanksgiving into setting up the Christmas decorations. And when I say "us", obvey, I mean Ben.  'Cause you know, I am basically useless these days...I sit on the couch.  Or lie on the couch.  If I'm having a hot flash, my blanket is on the floor.  If I'm shivering, my blanket is on me.  There is no in between.  I'm dying of heat exhaustion, or I'm shivering so hard that my teeth are chattering. It's neat.

(My sis, Lex, said the word "obvey" the other day and I nearly died laughing.  It's my new favorite thing to say.)

Ben's dad bought him this Christmas train when he was a kid, and a few years ago, when we were in Washington for Christmas, Ben's mom let us take it home with us.  He looooves this thing.  A lot.  As do our kids.

Unfortunately, the kids have been a little....destructive with the train set.  And when I say "the kids," I mean Gage.  So Ben is going to put it away tonight.  Which is sad.  But someday Gage won't be two anymore, and we'll be able to bring it out and enjoy it.

I inherited lots of ornaments from my mom a couple of years ago.  So I had the kids decide what colors they wanted this year, and much to my chagrin, they went with a weird, patriotic type of theme, apparently:

But again, the kids will only be little for so long.  So I'm going to let them pick heinous color combinations for Christmas for as long as they're in our house.

So this is a new tree we have this year!!  Ben went to Black Friday at Home Depot at four in the morning and got it.  It's totally prelit!!  Originally, $180.  On Black Friday at 4 a.m., $60.  Aw yeaaaaah.  Our days of winding and winding our other tree with lights and trying to figure out why they look weird or unbalanced is OVER.  I'm thrilled about it.

Ben unpacked this ornament and brought it to me:

"Kar," he said, "Can we just get rid of this ornament?  We must have inherited it from someone.  It means nothing to us. We've never been to the Bahamas.  Should I put it in the D.I. bin?"

"Um, hon, yes we have been to the Bahamas."

"What?"

"Yeah.  In January.  That's where we went on our cruise.  We picked this ornament out together at the Straw Market in Nassau."

"Ohhhhh!"

I laughed so hard.  How can he forget something like that?  Haha!  What a weirdo!!

Xena has decided that the tree skirt is her new throne.  She's so funny.

 Look at this pic Ben took:

 He's a good photographer, that one.