our own little christmas

Well, this year we had our own little Christmas on December 23. It was very nice. I can hardly believe how much I enjoy just being at home without anything pressing to do. We're so busy, it's such a treat, well, more like a cause for celebration, when we get to sit on our own couch!

here's our tree:

and here's how our tree stayed standing:

If you look closely you will see the cord from the blinds is attached to our tree. Why you ask? Well, on December 14th we had our life group over for a Christmas potlcuk. Just as the first bunch of people was arriving, the tree fell over. I abandoned my door opening duties, and went to pick up the tree before water spilled everywhere (it didn't really work, but I tried). Michael had run out to get something and wasn't home, so I had to call "come in" and the first thing they saw was a living room floor strewn with ornaments. We all had a good laugh, they helped us figure out a way to get the tree to stay up (that where the blind cord comes in), and put the decorations back on.

I had a lot of fun wrapping Michael's gifts this year, he apparently likes big packages, so I obliged. Particularly with one gift he got, which was a memory card for his GPS, it's barely and inch square, but it was in a box that was 2 cubic feet big. It was full of crumpled up newspaper, felt like there was nothing in it, and Michael had to dig through it to find his treasure. After opening all our presents we had quite a mess but it was fun to throw at each other. (ok so that lasted about 30 seconds before Michael felt compelled to clean it up).