Much like the weather dictating when we can visit the pumpkin patch in October, we also dash out and cut down our Christmas tree on the first non-rainy day in December.  Rob was working from home today and it happened to be gloriously sunny (and cold!), so he took a break and off we went.  When I think about it, last year’s trip to the tree farm was really an omen of the disastrous holiday season to follow (and a horrible January and February, for that matter).  Last December, Linlee was getting sick and was crying and didn’t care one fig about Christmas trees.  I remember I quickly waved an arm at the first tree on the farm and then I took my crying daughter back to the car where we sat while Rob cut down the tree by himself.  This year was so much better.  Linlee is healthy and happy and was quite excited to go find a Christmas tree.  Hooray!  The funny thing is, much like last year, we chose practically the first tree we saw; it was about three feet into the acres of available trees.  But it looked darned perfect to me!

We like this one!

Daddy cutting down the tree (Linlee licking a candy cane):

“TIMBER!”

Our outing to get the tree was perfect.  I predict we are going to have a merry Christmas this year. 

Linlee is into counting to ten in Spanish lately.  She does a great job, but always gets a little stuck on number four.  It’s had various pronunciations, my favorite being “wah-ha-po.”  Currently Linlees says, “quah-ha-dro,” which is pretty cute too.

Clearly my back was turned a bit too long.  And trust me, those bites taken out of the toast happened before she added the salt.  The funny thing is, I did suggest that she take a bite afterward.  I figured the best way to for her to learn why it was a bad idea to do what she did was for her to taste it.  So she touched the tip of her tongue to the salt and wanted new toast.  Naturally.

Rob did an awesome job of putting Christmas lights up on our house this weekend.  His dad was able to help him the first day and he finished on his own today.  I kept teasing him that our neighbor was getting ahead of us.  Rob says he puts out the lights in “phases.”  So while he was still on Phase One, I’d point out in a panic that our neighbor was already on Phase Two and then, “Oh no, Phase Three, the neighbor’s on Phase Three!”  Rob caught up today, though and, our yard looks very festive!  I took Linlee outside to see the finished product and she lit up and said, “Merry Christmas!”  I had no idea that she knew to associate the lights with Christmas or that she even knew that phrase.  I think we are going to have a really fun holiday season this year.

This picture doesn’t really do the yard justice; you can’t see the icicle lights hanging from the rooftop or the lit garland swooping around the entryway.  Just trust me that Rob did a great job!

Look who was visiting horse therapy today!

I was disappointed that a lot of my pictures turned out blurry today.  Not sure why that happened.  Luckily, the therapist had a photographer there to capture each student with Santa and will email me the pictures.  Linlee was much more receptive to greeting and posing for pictures with Santa today than she was last weekend at the mall.

Linlee likes to pretend to drive the car every time we get home from an outing.  She’s a bit obsessive about it.  As we were driving home last night after dance & dinner, Linlee kept reminding me, “Yinyee drive blue car when we go home.”  I kept responding, “Yes, you can drive the car when we get home.”  After about the fourth time she said it, I looked back at her and discovered that she was saying it in her sleep! She continued murmuring it about every two or three minutes as she slept.  I totally had the giggles.  When we got home, she woke up enough to climb into the front seat and put her hands on the steering wheel.  Then she mumbled, “I go play inside,” tipped over and was out cold.  Too funny!

We never actually put this one Christmas decoration away last year.  Linlee likes to watch the trains go around every once in a while.

We were given the light of our lives.

We are thankful that she is ours to love every single day.

Beautiful Linlee today.

Sorry for the poor quality of this image.  The picture is scanned and we have a terrible scanner.  (The chair is actually a dark, green velvet, not black.)  We made a quick trip to the mall today because I decided that I needed a pretty mold for the cranberry salad next week.  Santa had already arrived and there was no line.  We were lucky, too, because it took quite a bit of coaxing to get Linlee to sit on Santa’s lap.  He was so sweet and patient and read her a story.  The shots they took of Linlee looking up were not great because she was not smiling and looked like she was going to bolt at any second.  We chose the shot of Santa reading to Linlee because that seemed like this year’s memory to cherish.  (By the way, this is the teeny-tiny Santa at our mall.  I don’t know if he is five feet standing, but I love him!)

My delightful daughter has returned to me.  Linlee looks like such a flower, but she can be a real stinker when she wants to be.  Today she has been adorable and we’ve enjoyed a really nice day together.  I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday running errands in the pouring down rain (and when one is sick, that’s just about the worst).  It was a relief to stay home with Linlee today and go nowhere.  I’m actually feeling better (so is Rob) and managed to make a few candles as well.  This is more like it.  Let’s get November back on track.

Here is a picture of my sweet daughter about to strangle a snowman:

*** Shortly after I put up this post on how delightful Linlee has been today, she was sitting next to me and suddenly turned to me and said, “Mommy, go play.”  I’m so sure!