We Broke The Rules

Since I was little, the rule has been that the Christmas tree doesn't go up until after Thanksgiving. We'd start begging for my dad to bring in the decorations from the shed as soon as dinner was done. Well, being in Alaska puts you in the Christmas mood early. There's already snow on ground, and the sun is setting by 4:30. Plus I bought all the presents really early this year in anticipation of the baby, and it just feels like it's time for Christmas. So on Veteran's Day, we gave in and put up the tree. And we couldn't be happier that we broke the rule.

 Will decided the top of the tree was all we needed.

The Finished Product

Will remembered what stockings were for from last year--candy! Every morning he checks, and the other day when he went in to wake up Ethan, the first thing I heard was, "No candy in our stockings, Ethan." I guess there's no way I can put the presents under the tree. They wouldn't be able to stand it. I'm sure they'd be ripped open while I was taking a shower anyway.

The boys are still being their normal crazy selves. They've taken to "washing dishes" when I leave the room. I left a couple pans soaking one morning, and later found Ethan had dumped about 5 gallons of water all over the kitchen and laundry room floor. You never realize how much area a little water can cover until you see it first hand. Once I got it cleaned up, I went to get the mail and came back to find a dozen eggs had been smashed in front of the refrigerator. That boy. He had a look on his face like he knew he'd done something very bad, but he just couldn't help it.

Will saw me putting on eyeshadow last Sunday, and he was amazed at what he was seeing. "What are you doing, Mommy? Are you painting yourself?" All I could think of was the term "painted ladies" and I didn't like the connotation.

Anthony just finished his first semester of school, and he's starting up his second semester at Wayland Baptist University. They're very flexible on their scheduling, plus they have multiple, shorter semesters each year, so he's hoping to get a lot of schooling done even with his limited time each week. So far he's had wonderful teachers, but he had an interesting first math class that started out with two hours of a brimstone and damnation lecture. Probably a good thing the professor doesn't know yet that he's LDS. :) When they talked about math, he was a great teacher--he's in his 49th year of teaching this course!

I think that's about all the excitement we had this week. No baby news once again, but I'm sure there will be something to post in the next few weeks! Hope everyone is well!