And So It Begins...Again

The Christmas countdown is officially on, especially now that the calendar page has turned one last time for this year.

Today we went to pick out & bring home our tree. As I told Hannah: it felt wrong--like we were cheating--to agree on a tree in under five minutes. But we did. The pretty 6 1/2 ft. Blue Spruce is now in its stand (though it didn't get there without a little stress) awaiting some bling. The stand leaked, we took the tree back out & made adjustments that initially worked, put the tree back in the stand (with water) only to have it leak again upon turning the tree. I then had to drive Hannah to a birthday sleepover party while Paul dug out the old stand & trimmed the tree's base again. Now, all is calm (& bright, as he put the lights on as well. *Kate: this was the easy part, because I didn't touch the lights, today or when they were put away last year!) Now his work is done; the rest of the fun is always left to us girls. That will be tomorrow, when Hannah returns.

In the midst of the above tree issues, I lit the advent candle. Good thing I took this blip early. Just as last year, I forgot about it, only to realize so after the wax was melted midway between five & six! So much for that...until about Wednesday, anyhow! Ah, to own a brain!