Christmas is Coming!

I love this photo of our youngest and oldest at the Christmas tree farm. We had difficulty picking a tree this year. The kids were divided as to which type of tree we should get and none of them were in much of a mood to compromise. We did finally find a tree and Lyle was quite happy with the very skinny trunk. He cut that tree down in a matter of seconds. We've realized, however, that a skinny trunk is fraught with problems. See photo below.



Is it just me, or does our tree appear to be tilting? I'm quite sure it is. I've mentioned this numerous times to Lyle, but he hasn't taken note of it. Alas, the skinny trunk is to blame. We can't get a tight grip on it with our christmas tree stand. When we first put it up Lyle did try to reinforce the trunk with blocks of wood, but going by the current view of things, I'd say it didn't work.

This is a cute photo of Maya over at the girls' school. She is so fun to take on errands. Ninety percent of the time she's just great company. Her language skills have really blossomed and it's been so fun talking to her. Today I asked her what she thought Santa would put in her stocking. Her answer: "Halloween candy". Maybe Santa has some left-over candy too (probably didn't get as many elf trick-or-treaters as usual, so he'll pawn it all off in the kids' stockings)! She's only mentioned one thing that she really wants for Christmas---a robe. She thinks robes are just very cool. What's funny is that she gets robes and bras confused. One would think those two things could be easily kept straight, but apparently not. When she sees me in a robe she'll frequently ask for clarification. "Mom, dat a wobe o dat a ba?" She is getting a cute pink "wobe" for Christmas, but I just had a thought. What if what she really wants is a "ba"? Sorry, they don't come in toddler sizes.

She's also quite a daredevil. She loves to pull a chair over to the couch, get up on the arm of the couch, and take a flying leap.

Right before she jumps she likes to wave her arms and yell, "Oh no! I falling! I falling!" Sometimes she'll also throw in (just to mock me), "Careful, Maya!"