The Best Christmas Present

Seth and I had a lovely Christmas.
We celebrated with Seth's family on Christmas day, and with my own family yesterday. (We're in Richmond at the moment.)
Our families are very generous and we got a lot of nice things, but I think my favorite moment was not getting a gift, it was giving one:



A new grandchild for all the parents.

Coming July 6.

I should mention this will be the Winsor's third grandchild, and the first in my family.
Everyone is very, very excited.
Especially Seth and me.

Happy Birthday to Dad and Isaac

I guess both Isaac and Dad get ripped off a little having their birthdays so close to Christmas.  In addition to that, they're also both getting ripped off by me for having birthdays that are so close together.  Sorry, only one post congratulating both of you on growing older.  At least this one is better than last year's, right?

Janette asked me to tell a good story about Isaac misbehaving as a kid.  To all of our readers' disappointment, however, I couldn't actually think of any.  Isaac has always been and still is a great guy.  I hope his children turn out like he did.

As seen above, my dad is in his natural environment when he is in the woods.  I'm really glad that he took me camping so much when I was a kid.  He really does live up to his nickname of "Happy Pappy."

Happy Birthdays!

Say what?

The impossible has happened!





Our ice cream has freezer burn.

Does this mean my ice cream addiction created from two years of working at Cold Stone Creamery is finally, finally abating?

Judging by the amount I ate tonight, I'm thinking not quite yet.

Christmas Glasses

These are my Christmas Glasses.

I am in love with them.

I was given a set as a teenager to put in my hope chest for when I was married.

Yes, I have a hope chest. No, my family is not super old-fashioned.

It just doesn't feel like Christmas to me without them.

Each glass is a present from The 12 Days of Christmas.

They were made by Indiana Glass, and they are no longer in production.

A fact which makes them even more precious to me.

I love my Christmas glasses. I love them with a pure, Christmas-y love. And I hope you do too.

Amen.

Deal-Breaker

I just asked Seth how I was supposed to pronounce Muppet. (I swear I've heard it pronounced like Muffet before and I just wanted to clarify.)
It took him SEVERAL minutes to get over the shock and sadness of me even having to ask a question like that before he would finally answer me.
So I decided now would be a good time to finally admit to him that I don't like the Muppets.

Ok, there, I said it. I don't like the Muppets. They're ugly, and weird, and not funny, and they make stupid jokes.
They're just not my thing.
Seth was horrified of course. He can't even comprehend what he's hearing.
I'm glad I waited until after we got married before I revealed this bit of news to him.
I think it would have been a deal breaker.

Stuck In My Head

For the entirety of the winter season I will have two lines stuck in my head, thanks to Seth.
They're from a song in Muppet Christmas Carol.
Of course.
See the first 10 seconds of this song.

"When the cold wind blows it chills you....chills you to the bone!"
He sings it constantly.
And therefore, so do I.

Our Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we had a visit from my Dad and company, and he insisted on going Christmas tree shopping.
Apparently there are no more Cut-Your-Own Christmas Tree Farms close to where he lives, so he decided to do it with us in Raleigh.
Much to his dismay, they are also becoming a thing of the past here too. We did find a Pick-Your-Own Christmas Tree Farm, but they did not give you a saw to cut it down yourself. They did it themselves with a high-powered chain saw.
And would you be surprised if I told you that Seth and I immediately picked the ugliest tree to take home with us, simply because it was free?

You probably don't know us well enough if you said yes. You can't tell in the pictures, but the trunk looks like this: S.
And if you are doubting how truthful I'm being, here is a direct quote from an employee there: "Yeah when we were doing the pricing we came upon this one and we thought, man! that's an ugly tree, but we figured some family's bound to want it..."
Just call us Charlie Brown and Linus.
So they cleaned the tree out for us and we it took home and set it up so that you can't really tell the trunk is crooked, and then we decorated it.

And I am very much in love with our imperfect perfect little tree.

So to all those people who laughed at us for taking the ugliest tree on the lot home, I say, "Boo Yeah."

And, of course, Merry Christmas.