OH CHRISTMAS TREE

I had a very relaxing past few days. Unexpected and very much needed. My sister was here, which always helps everything. And then for Thanksgiving, Ken prepped and cooked everything, friends brought dessert, and one of our guests did the dishes, allowing me to have moments to sit and relax, not worry about to-do lists and have time to sit on the floor with the girls. The pace of everything was slow and meandering, and it really helped that the people that came through and those who stayed with us seemed to be of the same mind. 

It felt very natural to embrace the holiday spirit with my sister here. We missed our cousins and our families, but thought of them while we maximized our time together. We ate and ate, played Christmas music constantly and the day after Thanksgiving, we went and got our Christmas tree. I had resisted Ken's plea for an artificial tree for the past few years, but this year I relented and we got a spindly little thing at Home Depot. It was all of $40 to last us for many years to come, and it looks to me to be filled with pluck. As if it saying, 'I can be good as any of them!' 

Sloane was beside herself with excitement, and begged to start decorating the tree by herself while I finished up in the kitchen. A few minutes later, I poked my head in to check in on her and saw her and Logan decorating with the utmost concentration and seriousness. She had almost finished putting up all of the ornaments, on the lower half of the tree of course, and Logan was enthusiastically "helping". I couldn't resist grabbing my camera and snapping these photos.