Beating back the bah humbugs!

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you should know already that we put our tree up last night. It turned out to be a much better evening than I had thought it would be.

Our Xmas Tree

We started the day off with more fraud charges on Chel's bank account, thought a kid might've swiped her card, but it turned out it was these scammers. So, a good evening was definitely needed.

Dinner was awesome, and not to mention cheap. $8 to feed all of us. Thank you sales at Meijers! Veal patties with spaghetti sauce, melted mozarella cheese on top with some linguini as a bed. Mmm mmm mmm! Very tasty! While Chel was making dinner, Zach and I assembled the tree. A couple years ago, we decided to replace the monstrosity that was the tree my parents gave me years ago and got the white, pre-lit one in the picture. I really like the fact that I don't have to struggle with stringing lights all around it. Also Chel had made a batch of cookie dough, so that was chilling in the fridge as well.

After dinner, the dough came out and we broke out our sweet set of holiday cookie cutters. I think we bought them at Michael's a couple years ago, but there's 40 of them, half large half small. We had enough dough to make 4 pans of cookies, not a whole lot, but we're going to decorate them tonight.

While the cookies were being cut and cooked, I tasked the dork twins on xmas decoration seeking. After about 15 minutes, they came back upstairs with a tub full of stuff. Yay! I spent a good hour going through it and sorting good from bad and making discoveries of stuff that I didn't know we had from when Chel and I combined our stuff. You really can't tell from the pic, but the ornaments are a mixed bag. Some keepsakes/heirlooms, some cheap-o plastic ones (that look cool at any rate), and these sweet little ones that Chel had made years ago from some kit. Between myself, Chel and the kids we had the tree all decorated relatively quickly.

Add in the eeePC sitting on the table blaring xmas music, the mood was cheery and festive. I remarked to Chel later that there wasn't a fight or argument all night. Truly a holiday miracle! I took pictures of the tree and the kids standing in front of it, figured since we're poor and didn't get school pics this year, might be cool to substitute my own special ones. After everything was said and done, kids in bed, I spent a few minutes taking so more 'artsy' pics of the tree. Random ornaments and such. Very cool stuff. I'll have to post them to my flickr account and show them off.

We may not be able to afford presents this year, but this is our gift to ourselves. Spending time together as a family is the best present we could get. The kids are quickly getting older and with any luck will fly from the nest in the next few years, so better enjoy it while we can.

Wishing the best for everyone this holiday season!
Rev.