.In a Better Mood.

(For some reason my page is taking forever to load. In order to hear my Christmas music while reading my blog, you have to scroll down to the bottom and allow my music player to load. Harrumph.)

I decided not to blog until I was in a better mood! Here I am. My in-laws surprised us with a beautiful artificial tree as our Christmas gift. My mom-in-law was so very sweet. She told me that she picked a tree that looked the most countryish - complete with little pine cones! I thought that was so nice of her to consider my decorating style and not just purchase any artificial tree. It actually does lend itself very nicely to my prim decor. I think the slenderness of the tree makes it the most prim looking tree I have ever had. So it's official - we have an artificial tree - and I like it! And Scotty's allergies are soooo much better - between getting rid of the live tree after 24 hours and starting him on Zyrtec - well he is just a different boy!! My tripod is still MIA, which is very, very strange. All of my photography "Stuff" is stored in one location, but I cannot find that tripod anywhere. I wonder if I left it at the last shoot. I had to take a photo of our tree to share with you, after all of my complaining about a tree, but it was not taken with a tripod, and is not a great photo. You'll get the idea, though.

Not only was I shaky taking this photo, but I also must have been at a weird angle, because our tree really is straight regardless of how it appears in the photo!



I cannot believe that it is Christmas week already! I failed miserably at not getting stressed this December and truly enjoying the days leading up to the Christmas celebration. But it is not too late to redeem this week, right?! I have much to do, but I {think} I can do it in a calm, stress-free manner. I will not be doing school with Cadi this week, so we will have our mornings open. Today's to-do list looks like this:



It helps organize my thoughts and plans when it is in writing - especially my handwriting, as opposed to typed. I have always done better writing things out. In college, I hand wrote all of my papers before typing them. There is just something about pen and paper that is so precious to me. I would struggle to live without it and without my journals. It's hard for me to think without a pen in my hand, and nearly impossible for me to articulate what I may be thinking unless paper is there to capture the thoughts. A weird idiosyncrasy, I suppose.


What does your day/week look like? How do you organize your moments, or do you just let them come? Are you purposing to remain focused on the reason for our Christmas celebration? How?

Well, I had better get off the computer and get to work. It's time to find my sweet girl and our Christmas aprons. I may be back before Christmas, and I may not. I am not going to stress over it. May you have a blessed Christmas week, remembering the Baby who was born to rescue us!!

.The Tree That Was.

Is no more.
Yup it's gone.
After less than twenty four hours Scotty developed a severe allergic reaction to the beautiful tree I gushed over last night.
I held my little guy against my chest in the childrens' bathroom as we let it fill with hot steam. I gave him a nebulizer treatment and watched him struggle to catch a breath, listened to him cough and then gag as he gasped for air. I listened to his breathing, ragged and labored, wiped his nose, kissed his hot forehead, and realized a silly Christmas tree was not worth this.
So severe were his allergies and my reaction to them that we stripped the tree of our decorations and lights and short lived memories and flung it outside as quickly as possible.
I have swept, scoured, cleaned as much of the reminder of that tree away as I can.
I am a little sad, a little blue. I didn't even get one good photo.
It's artificial from here on out, but not until next year.
We are done with trees this year.
{Bah-humbug}.

.Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree.

I had resigned myself to the fact that we were not going to able to get a tree the day after Thanksgiving, as has become a tradition. Our sweet Scotty exhibited a lot of allergy problems last Christmas due to our tree. After much researching we were told the best thing to do for him was to get a live tree for no longer than ten days.

I had resigned myself to the fact that because our tree would not be up from the day after Thanksgiving until the week after New Year's, that we would have to get a small Charlie Brown type tree. How could we justify spending $40 on a tree that would be up for only a few days?

It has not felt like Christmas in our home. I am very traditional, and having such a huge tradition "messed up" has been hard for me. Of course, a Christmas tree is not the reason for Christmas - not at all. And I know that, and I believe that, and with or without a tree I would and will celebrate my Savior's birth and His rescue plan for me. And of course, I want my precious son to be healthy, and do not want to jeopardize his health just because of my want to fill a silly tradition. But still . . . .

My sweet, sweet husband who knows me so very well, and who (I am sorry to all you other wives who think differently {wink}) is definitely by far and away the best husband on this earth, surprised me this afternoon. Just after the children had gone down for their naps, I heard the doorbell ring. When I opened the door there stood my hubby with a grin stretched across his handsome face, and a monstrous 8 foot tree in his arms!! He bought a balsam fir. I was so excited,and could not wait for the children - especially Cadi to wake up from her nap.

Cadi could smell it as soon as she got to the top of the stairs. She was so excited to see the HUGE tree taking up much of our dining room. I think she thought we were just not going to get one this year. She was a lot of fun decorating the tree with this year. Scotty woke up about half way through our decorating. He was so cute upon first seeing the tree. "Pretty, pretty tree" he kept saying.



Jim helped Scotty touch the tree. This was probably not one of our brightest moves as parents to a son highly allergic to Christmas trees. {bah}



Scotty went to bed with quite the runny nose, and a bit wheezy and raspy. We will see how this works out. He was given a dose of Zyrtec, per doctor's orders, for the first time tonight. I am hoping that once that builds up in his little body, it will help.

Jim spent a bit of time trying to set up his train under the tree. He had quite the little "helper" in Scotty! Cadi for the most part sat mesmerized on the floor beneath the tree. This is a rather technically, horrible shot, but something about it is so sweet regardless.



I cannot find my tripod. I think it must be in our van from my last shoot. Jim has the van at church. I tried to take a photo without it, but I am just not steady enough on my own. It is really hard getting a nice lit Christmas tree photo with a tripod, and without is nearly impossible for me. Any tricks that you know?? This is my only lit version until I find my tripod - I laid down under the tree and held the camera as steady as I could on my chest! {grin}
I think that my husband is so romantic for bringing this tree home to us.



And in case you are wondering, because I have not mentioned it in eons - yes, we are still doing school! {wink} A homeschooling post complete with photos {grin}, for all of those who emailed and commented questions, will be coming soon!



Hope you are having a "tree"mendous day! {giggle}