Woo-hoo!

What a day yesterday was! Crazy busy it was.

But last night. Well, last night was fun.

We started a tradition many years back that I really love, but it became harder to do as the boys grew older and became busier. I think it will be easier to do this year because we only have Jake and Abbie at home now and they aren't so busy that they're gone almost every night.

This is the tradition: I wrap all our Christmas books in Christmas paper and put them under the tree and every night (or almost) we open a book and read it together. Sometimes, if I'm really on top of things, I'll have a fun treat to nibble on while we read. This is an especially great tradition if it is snowing outside and we read by the fireplace.

The plan last night was for Doug to read to us while we decorated the tree. After dinner Doug hurried upstairs and came down dressed in the white, fluffy robe Nick and Sam gave him last year for Christmas. It takes a real man to wear a white, fluffy robe-I can tell you that much for sure.

Before he read, Doug participated in a little tree decorating.

I think he was going for the "soft Santa" look, with the robe and hat and all.

He was cozy, to be sure.

I was all about the business at hand: getting the tree decorated before midnight. I didn't even think about taking any photos. If I didn't have Abbie around, none of these shots would have happened. Not even the "soft Santa" ones.

She has an eye for detail, that girl. I wouldn't even have considered these shots.

I'm glad she did.

I'm guessing Doug took this shot of Abbie arranging the tree skirt. This is how it is done. The smallest person has to get down there and do it.

We're in trouble when Abbie is all grown up.

Doug read. We decorated. It worked well.

Last night's book was "Red Ranger Came Calling". If you don't know this book you need to.

When it was all said and done my uber-focused mind relaxed and I realized I had no children-in-front-of-the-just-decorated-tree pictures so I called Jake and Abbie back and they, of course, knew right away what I wanted.

And they obliged.

The "don't we love each other?" pose:


The "Jake! Your eyes were closed!" shot:


The "Jake! You look goofy!" shot:


The "Jake! You were looking away!" shot:


The "Okay. This is good enough" (translation: I'm tired of this. We can try again another time.) shot:


And then Abbie, who wasn't quite tired of the moment, wanted her own shot...

...with Santa. And it was just fine.

But the main point is that the tree is up and decorated and our first book read and all is well with December.