step back, scrooge

trout is slowly becoming himself again.  his spirits are lifted...no thanks to this cone that he has to wear.

the kids and i call him melman...after the ocd/hypocondriac/cone wearing giraffe from the madagascar movies.  chad calls him "cone-man the barbarian."

regardless of what we call him...he can't see anything.  he runs into everything from the walls...to the couch...to the cabinets.  last night, he knocked annslee down with the cone.

it was an accident, of course.

my girl got her permanent cast yesterday.  after much debate...she landed on blue.  i think it is an excellent choice.

i was really pushing for red...since red would look best with her christmas dress, but she was pretty sure about this blue color.  i already have plans for a white paint pen and some snow flake designs...but for now, we are letting it shine in all it's pretty, blue spendor.

and don't even get me started on the ungly, sharpie marker, 1st grade signiture possibilities.  that's just gonna totally throw off my snow flake design.

last night...we finally had a pleasant, celebrate-the-holiday sort of evening.

it was tree-getting day.

get ready for some christmas magic, kids.  and don't even think about trying to bring me down with any "humbug" attitude.

the good Lord must have been smiling down on us...because this outing could not have gone any better if santa, himself had shown up.

kermit came along...which was fine by me.  he's way better company than mario, luigi and the ds.

aiden got to sport her dress coat.  the first year she got this coat...i never let her wear it because i was completely against it getting dirty.  that resulted in her wearing it only once...to some dressy event that i can't even remember.  now...i let her wear it whenever she wants.  and do you know what?  that thing never seems to really get dirty.  (lesson to self.)

true to form...chase accidently knocked the tree we were testing over when he tried to climb it.

chad was abviously out of control during that moment.

the good news is that it didn't fall on anyone.

and also true to form...aiden found her charlie brown rescue tree.  this one was really cute and only $16...so naturally, i tried to talk chad into getting it for her room.

he put the cabosh on that idea with the whole "fire hazard" reasoning.

why must he always be thinking clearly?

annslee stopped to smell the poisonous flowers.

what is this backwards peace sign, anyway?  i don't really get it.  does it still mean "peace" to whoever you are signing it to...or does it mean "peace to the person it's pointing toward?"  (in this case, colt is saying "peace to himself.")  or is it the new way that kids give their parents the bird without us realizing what's happening?

at this point, i can't be sure.

i just know all the kids are doing it these days.

we had to pull a fast one to get annslee out of there without this guy.

she toted him all over the store.  i still don't know how we avoided a tantrum.  it must have been that whole, "God smiling down on us" thing.

this year colt became a real helper with roping the tree to the top of the truck.

that's a right of passage for a boy.

and that speck of light in the sky...

well...

that would be my favorite moon...in my favorite waxing or waning cresent form.

i was a huge help by sitting in the car, where it was warm, with the other 3 kids while they got the tree situated.

this morning actually provided a nice sight.  trout got to take a little break from the cone to enjoy a dog bone.  this was a sight for sore eyes.

look at how much they had to shave of his stomach.  his insiscion is all the way from his chest to his hips.

poor guy.

we finally got the furniture re-arranged and the tree perfectly placed.

"little full.

lotta sap."

for our anniversary, we splurged on this advent lodge.  in the next few days, i'm printing out a bunch of christmas, family activities...like making paper snow flakes, reading a christmas story together, carol at the neighbor's house (yeah...no one is gonna really be on board with that one), and going to look at lights.  i will put one behind each door and they will open 1 each day until christmas.

step back, scrooge.

the fog is beginning to lift...

and i'm back in celebratory business.

last night, as chad was tucking the kids in...he was giving them Bible character quizzes.  he asked, "who used a sling shot in the Bible?"

chase triumphantly replied...

"THE ANGRY BIRDS!!!!"

ummmmm....

no.