Celebrating and Decorating
We had Thanksgiving at our house. Mom and part of our vast family were there this year. Nathanael sat on the table and talked to us...actually the speaker-phone sat there, he is in Nashville but it was like he was in the room making jokes like everyone else. Laura showed up on the very same table in the same way. We were kidding about how she looked just like her brother. It's good to laugh with family. The food was good too!
Since then we have been decorating for Christmas. It's not normal for us to be this early but I finally got smart and decided to climb on the roof to put up lights before the cold came (actually it was Jodie's idea). Of course you need to clean out the gutters before you put up the lights on them. Then...when you find out that the nifty gutter hanger brackets you used to hang the gutters a few years ago have already broken because they were made of pot metal instead of steel, you have to go around and hammer in nails to take their place. I did get the lights up before dark.
The next night we decorated the inside of the house. We put on the new Josh Groban CD to set the mood. Wreaths, evergreen, and lights trim the staircase and the partial walls around the living room. The hay-trimmed, twinkle-lighted manger now sits empty in the alcove ready for baby Jesus on Christmas morning (a family tradition). Then Jodie played the CD of Laura singing one of my Christmas songs. It made me sad-happy, if you know what I mean. We also played all the commercials that Jubi has made for the Christmas programs at church over the years. We had some eggnog to top off the evening.