MIA no longer

Betcha thought I went to Georgia again.

Nope! (Thank God!)

I've been doing this:



(It looks better in person. I didn't do all those neat things that Jolene suggested - I was trying to be quick and easy. Maybe I'll do a better one later!)

The best thing about this tree: it's pre-lit. And, all the presents underneath are segregated according to color, thanks to Little AM.

I did that Thursday night. Then Friday night, I did a little more (garlands, etc.) We still haven't gotten our outdoor lights up, and I suspect they won't go up until at least Wednesday, unless Jason gets a wild hare and does them in the morning.

Yesterday morning, we attended a waffle breakfast sponsored by our local Optimist Club. One of my co-workers is the president of the local chapter, so we go to a good bit of their stuff. It was good - but I limited myself to one waffle (the big, fluffy kind). Jason, on the other hand, ate FOUR. And bacon. They had a Santa there, but Anna Marie didn't want to talk to him. We decided not to push the issue.

(I guess all that not-making-a-big-deal-about-Santa stuff is taking hold.)

Last night, I attended a birthday dinner for my aunt's mother-in-law. It was at a Mexican restaurant, and it was muy delicioso. My aunt got a picture of Anna Marie and her granddaughter Savannah (both wearing their glasses) and I suppose I'll post it when she emails it to me.

Yes, I had my camera, but we played "musical chairs" so Savannah could sit by Anna Marie, and I didn't know where my purse was for a spell.

And then today, we went to take our Christmas card picture. Anna Marie doesn't look forward to these photo shoots, and asked me if we could just draw pictures instead!

Silly, silly child.

If I were as talented as my scrapbooking friends, well, I'd be making my cards. However, a clever picture is about all I have time for these days.

We traveled to the auction where Jason works, because they have a big tree in the middle of a big lobby. Amanda was gracious enough to spend her afternoon snapping the shots.

Here is the traditional family picture I considered:



And I actually spent some time Photoshopping the area next to Jason's head, because the tree was too narrow that high up and you could see the floor behind us. We were on a staircase that was blocked at the bottom by the tree, and Amanda was above us.

But, this is the picture I ended up going with:



Not very traditional. You basically can't see me at all.

But you know what? I think it conveys both how we feel about each other and how we feel about the season.

They're coming from Sam's. Jason will be able to pick them up in a few days, and then comes the fun part - trying to located addresses, because we never keep a list from year to year.