Preparing for Christmas

Okay, I do realize that Christmas is over, but we're going to play blog catchup again. In December, I once again made a 2.5 week trek to Washington state for work. Before I left we did have a chance to get ready for Christmas, although we still have a strange fondness for our 2.5 foot tree from our first married year in the apartment. We can't seem to justify upgrading since we always travel for Christmas to see family.

Helen really enjoyed the tree this year. She went around and examined every ornament she could and tried to identify them by name. Popular titles included "baby", "Dorwah", "truck", and "star".

Helen's Grandmama (pronounce Ma-mama) and Papa came up to visit and walked up the street to see the amazing lights of Butler Station. It was incredibly busy this year, as apparently the word has gotten out about the one house that has 160,000+ lights in/on/around/ their house.

Helen normally can't stand to wear hats, but she did warm up to the idea of Santa's hat.

I barely made it back from Washington by driving through snow-- an unheard of feat for a Southern born-- and made it out before airport delays in Seattle and Chicago. Whew, I was ready for family time and Christmas time!-AW