Deck the halls

Okay, well, we don't have any halls in this house, but we did find a rad tree for just $5!!!! Plus, we got to get totally muddy and freezing cold finding it and having it cut down for us. I love Oregon for this. Dalia was thrilled to run away from us and commune with the cows and dogs on the other side of the property fence. Poor Mark. I think he's going to have a heart attack with her independence sometimes. I'm no help, either. I just let her run away and say, casually, "hey, Dalia, come back, where ya goin?" I guess I spend enough time with her to know she won't go far. But, I am the Queen of social loafing when Mark is around. (social loafing is a real psychological term, btw)

So, we got this awesome tree after dropping off Jim at Jim and Sarah's. (An aside: while at lunch with them, Dalia lifted her cup of milk and said, "Cheers, Everybody!" It brought tears to our eyes the rest of the day.)

The tree, btw, was covered in lady bugs, which have the rare effect of freaking out Dalia AND Mark when they get to close to them in the car. heee heee heee.

Dalia loved helping decorate the tree. It's been about a week now and she is thoroughly enjoying unhanging and hanging ornaments again and again. Each morning she wakes up and asks us to "turn on my mismas yights and tree."

We've already spent the past two days baking and are really enjoying the holidays already. We're waiting around to see if there is really going to be an Arctic Blast 2009. We'll see by morning. It's been FFFAAARRREEEZZZING here. So beautiful and sunny, but too cold to go outside.

Anyway, tis the season and all that. I'm so glad Dalia is big enough to really enjoy it all this year. And thanks to Calliou, she's well aware of who Santa is already. I'll leave you with this lovely holiday image. My favorite this year so far.

This is a 40 year old musical angel. It's been my favorite piece of Christmas my whole life. My parents gave it to me a couple of years ago. Sadly, Dalia accidentally broke the head off. She was HORRIFIED. I was not. I quite like Mark's display of this little bit of family history. I'm not sure I want to glue her head back on yet. Ironically, the first ornament I ever got is also a little angel type wooden thingy that Dalia found the other day and quickly and quite by accident decapitated. You should have seen her face, poor girl.