December update

Time just flies by when your day is made up of playing with baby, laundry, cleaning and cooking. Throw in 2 jobs and all the events preparing for Christmas and all the time in the day is accounted for. I barely have time to watch a half hour of tv before it is bedtime.

We cut down our tree on Sunday and put it up yesterday. We went to a pretty cool tree farm in West Newbury. We bundled Ethan up and met my parents and Bogie at the farm. It was perfect weather -- crisp with a little snow on the ground. The farm was trying to clear a plot of land to replant so we got a discounted tree. It is a little crooked and sparse at the top, but with the lights and decorations it is perfect. The farm had sleds so you could drag your tree out, but we caught up with the tractor and loaded on our trees, dog, baby, and adults and rode back to our car in style. I made a yummy adobe chili, chocolate chili to warm us up.

Putting up the tree was the usual Josh and Penny excitement. Josh trimmed off the bottom, brought it in, and of course, it was still too tall. Out the tree went, more trimming, back in and still too tall. So Josh trimmed the top of the tree using one of our steak knives. Nothing says Christmas tree without lobbing off the top with one of our knives. A tradition we have been conducting since 2000 -- the year of the Christmas bush.

Ethan was amazed, scared, astonished at the tree once it was light and decorated. Ethan and the tree are separated by a large gate affectionately nicknamed Fort Ethan.

Speaking of Ethan, he had his 9 month check up on Tuesday. He is fine. His weight growth is down a little, which his pediatrician attributed to his being an active little guy crawling about. We will just have to feed the little E. bear more and he has been given the okay for table food and dairy. Last night he had italian turkey sausage and whole wheat penne straight off of Mommy's plate. He seemed to enjoy it.