Finding Some Holiday Spirit

The Christmas season snuck up on us while we were preoccupied with other things, but today our holiday mood got a jump start! Church was lovely -- beautiful music (though our priest is going soft and has us singing Christmas hymns during Advent) and good fellowship -- and afterwards the kind couple who have given us our tree for the past couple years invited us to stop by their farm after church and choose one for this year. Katie picked it, and it is a beauty. When we got home Katie helped me wrap up the cookies and candy we've made to send out (and Ed wasn't sorry to have her take over for him in that!). My dad came over while we were wrapping, to go over the latest findings in this year's edition of the Quest for the Perfect Place to Live (They want to move, and we do too, especially after Saturday's discovery that the Games Club which Travis has been looking forward to joining for the last couple months is really a Dungeons & Dragons club and not, as we'd thought, a computer game designing club. Big disappointment there! Unfortunately, finding a place that both families love and that fits our budget is not easy. We seem to be reaching the "despair" stage, at which my dad announces he will move to Costa Rica and play Pictionary with the monkeys.) 

Then we went to the Community Christmas Concert, which was just what I needed! All the songs were beautiful, and ... Tradition!

And the kids trimmed the tree! Well, Ed did the lights, and Katie did almost all the decorating (Travis really only came in to give me a photo opportunity -- it looks so much more festive with both of them!). But the important thing is that I didn't have to do any of it! (I made the hot cocoa, which is a contribution of sorts!)

So there we are -- chock full of holiday cheer! And, in the "adding to the festive mood" column, I should also note that Ed's dad and his brother, while both still in the hospital, are both doing well! His father is said to be walking again, which he hasn't done in years, and we hear that they are both expected to be released fairly soon!