Smith Family Weblog

I’ve had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. I’ve tried decorating, putting up the tree, listening to Christmas music and subsisting on a steady diet of baked goods and White Russians. Still, the stress of work and traveling and shopping has gotten the best of me.

There are a few things that are helping, though–the first is snow we’ve had this week. I was probably the only one on our street happy to see shoveled walks covered again in a matter of minutes this morning. Maybe it’s the six years we spent in Wisconsin talking, but I think it should be cold and snowy come December.

In continuing a long-standing family tradition, we bought our tree from a retail store parking lot. It was rather dark that night, so we didn’t realize it had been spray painted a lovely shade of aqua until we got it home.

Bryan anchored the tree to the wall in two places, but we decided there was a still a good chance someone would pull it over so we didn’t use the glass ornaments or the tree topper this year. It’s rather sparsely decorated thanks to some busy elves. I wonder if we’ll ever locate all of the ornaments missing from the lower half.

And speaking of the elves, the highlight of the month has been Ava bopping around in a Santa hat. Though she’s still not posing for photos much these days, I did manage to snap one quick shot.

I am getting there.