It's Beginning To Look A Teeny Tiny Bit Like Christmas

I finally hauled the Christmas decoration stuff down from the attic the other day and put some things out.

Everything has to be placed above the 3-foot (read: reaching grasping toddler hands) level so it's not exactly a balanced look.

I do like decorating the top of the piano! Maybe by next year the phone won't have to sit there, too. Or the *ahem* multiple remotes ...

The Boogie thinks that the nativity is called the "actibity" and when we correct her still has trouble with it.
"I love the actibity!" she'll exclaim.
"Nah-tivity," we correct her.
"Nah ... actibity," she tries again.

She helped me decorate but I added the lights after she had gone to bed. "Look, stars around baby Jesus!" she said in the morning.

That afternoon we met Eric for dinner at Chick-fil-a. The Boogie loves to eat there but is always apprehensive about going because she is deathly afraid of the cow (and anyone else in a giant costume.) When she found out where we were going she asked, "Will the cow be there?"
"I don't know," I answered.
"Well, what day is it?" she asked.
"It's Tuesday," I said.
"Is the cow there on Tuesdays?" she persisted.
"I don't know, honey," I said, "I don't remember if I've ever seen him there on a Tuesday." That satisfied her. And then of course the cow was there, dressed in a Santa costume, walking around and waving at children and having his picture taken with them. As soon as the Boogie saw him she lost her appetite. She couldn't eat because she was watching to make sure he didn't come near us, and when he did walk past she plastered herself to my side. The Pheebs, on the other hand, is totally unfazed by people dressed in giant cow costumes, and waved and "high-five"ed this one every time he came by.

After Chick-fil-a we went to pick out a Christmas tree. On our way there Eric asked the Boogie if she brought any money. When she said no he said, "Oh, no! How will we pay for the tree? Maybe they'll take a trade and we can leave you there and take the tree home with us." She has been very gullible lately, and has a hard time telling when we're kidding. It's as if she knows that really, truly, we can't be serious but just the same maybe we are serious ... So she protested on the verge of tears at being left at Lowe's in exchange for a Christmas tree and even after we assured her that we were just kidding she didn't seem too sure that it was really only a joke.

By the time we got home and got the tree in the stand and Eric figured out what was wrong with the strings of lights it was way past bedtime so we promised the Boogie that we would decorate the tree the next night, and we did. Peabody thought it was loads of fun to shove plastic ornaments into the branches and then pull them out again. The next day when I had to constantly chase her away from the tree I realized it was probably a mistake to let her help decorate. Both girls had fun, though!

The last thing was to put the penguin on top, the doing of which I am positive I took pictures of but somehow are not on the camera memory card.

And that's about as decorated as this household gets. Maybe next year we'll put some lights outside.