We finally made it out to Galloping Grace, one cold and windy night, to get our tree. In grand tradition, we bought the biggest one they had. Although, each year, their biggest one gets smaller... It has gone from a crazy 15' three years ago to 11' this year. Still, that's a pretty big tree and plenty to deal with and decorate.
One day in Albuquerque, it snowed! Shadow was DYING and I mean, dying for someone to come play with her in the snow. I tried, but I wasn't fun enough. I think she was really missing Velvet that day. The two of them used to chase each other through the snow. The school district did an optional early release as of about 11am that day. My kids have missed so much school this year, I felt bad taking them out for no reason, so I made them stay until early afternoon. But, I couldn't resist letting them take advantage of the weather a little bit and hoped I could get them home to play with Shadow in the snow. Too bad the storm didn't last. By the time they got home, the snow was gone. Poor Shadow puppy. Hopefully, it will snow again.
Grace was pretty cute; she picked up the guitar by the fire at Galloping Grace and started playing while they waited for us to load the tree.
Tried to get some good pics, but it was too dark, cold and windy!
We LOVED getting to bring the tree home in our new sleigh!
Finally got it decorated after a couple of days.
Finally got the house pulled together after a couple of weeks.
I dare anyone to come up with
something that looks more cozy than a dog sleeping in front of a fireplace
under a Christmas tree.
My new birthday tradition is to buy tickets to the
Nutcracker and take the girls. (We've been going for a long time, but I've decided to make it my birthday party and present.) David doesn't go with us anymore.
He's seen it many times and is happy to buy the tickets for my present.
He also bought me those cool nutcrackers on my fireplace. Anyway, I
love the excuse to get the girls dressed up and take them somewhere fancy like the ballet. You can't tell how much from this picture... but Grace
did make a pretty big effort to look her nicest. She hates having to
dress up and have any fuss about her hair beyond brushing it. I bribed
her with a filet mignon to curl it. The curl lasted about 10 minutes
and she ended up looking much like her normal self (although, still in a really
nice dress and dress boots.) We were out of time to try anything else,
and I had already bought the steak. I was happy with the fact that she
just let me touch her hair and attempt to make it look nice. She felt bad
though, and has agreed to let me do it nice for church on Christmas weekend
too. Harriet is my little Christmas angel. I think she looks like a
little puff of a heavenly cloud in this white and gold dress and shoes.
The girls have developed a tradition for themselves to take their own money to the Nutcracker performance and buy their own Nutcracker every year. They are getting quite a good collection. I know they will love that they did this someday. Well, they already love doing it, but when they are grown, they will have an amazing collection full of memories.
Traditions are cool. People, not just kids, depend on them. They are comforting and defining. We probably have a lot of the same traditions as everyone else. Advent calendars (chocolate and LEGO this year!), making sugar cookies and fudge, finding the elves every morning... it doesn't feel like Christmas until you do these things. We like to have seafood on Christmas Eve, at least shrimp, and clam chowder is also a favorite. We make quiche for Christmas morning and have Buche de Noel for Christmas day dessert. I was trying to decorate more quickly this year and save myself some time. I debated about putting out the Christmas Village. It didn't come out right away, but Harriet spotted the absence and demanded that it come out. Whatever your traditions are, you do them and you love them, even if you forget why you love them until after you do them.
We hope our friends and family far and near have a really Merry Christmas next week!
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