Tree

I am having the loveliest little December imaginable. On the 1st, we went out and got our tree. We tromped a lot of tree plantations, with a sweatered pug dog in tow. Spent more money than we should have on the tree and then found a place where they sold them for half of what we paid. But OH WELL! We decorated the tree with our motley collection of ornaments. But each ornament is a memory. We have an ornament from virtually all of our travels. The kids get ornaments each year that commemorate what they are doing in their lives and/or what they were for Halloween. As a result, we have ornaments that depict acting, fencing, baseball, Raggedy Ann, Thomas, Dorothy, Storm troopers, Buzz Light Year, knights, out heritage (Pennsylvania Dutch and Lithuanian ornaments), cooking, knitting, golfing, dance. As well as from places such as Cancun, San Fran, Puerto Rico, France, Disney, Baltimore, New York, etc. Plus, I am growing a collection of purple ornaments. So decorating our tree is always a dreamy experience.
My brother and his wife were over. To make our event even more festive, I made a steak dinner that was dynamite (if I do say so myself). Cajun spiced flat-iron steaks with bleu cheese sage sauce, twice baked potatoes with rosemary caramelized onions and mushrooms, and plain old green beans. Then Mark broke into the stash he was going to use for the Christmas stockings, and we watched college football while eating fun-sized snickers bars. He is ecstatic that Ohio State (the team we've been following for 10 years) is once again in the BCS championship game. I was more into the Snickers than football, but I'm not complaining.