O Kitchen Tree O Kitchen Tree

Well I don't know what happened but I blinked and it's the middle of December.  As I type this there are bona fide snow flurries flitting about outside.  I guess having a late Thanksgiving throws me off, but it's Dec 12 already and we just got the tree up tonight.  After much debate over where to put the tree, or even whether it should go up at all since we've got a crazy 17 month old on our hands with an hankering for shiny forbidden objects, we decided to put it in the kitchen.  The kitchen is a no-baby-roaming zone.  She either sits in her highchair or she's being held, so we figure that would be the safest place for the tree and still allow us to enjoy it.

  Ta-Da!

 

Please note the dazzling display of lights outside our window in the backyard.  Kurt Griswold was busy this morning getting our reindeer up.  They move.  And the "snow" lights twinkle.  Fab-u-lous.

I also managed to order 2 sets of Christmas cards this week.  Now if I get them out in the mail it will really be impressive.  That was about all the productivity I could muster this week.  Our house got hit with a cold and all three of us were feeling not too great.  SB actually didn't seem to feel bad but her nose was running and she decided not to nap at all.  This is always a small crisis for me as her naptime is my precious few hours to get a few things done and recharge for the afternoon.  She tends to get a little cranky if she misses her nap, but Mommy gets REALLY cranky if SB misses her nap.  You'd think after 9 months of full-time mommyhood I'd be a pro at multi-tasking with baby in tow, but I'm not.  I find it hard to get much done at all when she's awake and on the move.  I segregate my tasks and errands into two categories, baby-friendly and not baby friendly, with a sub-category of "baby-friendly but it may take 3 times as long to get it done" like folding laundry, for example.  SB is very helpful with the laundry.  She loves to snatch underwear and parade around the house with it.  Sometimes on her head.  Quite hilarious, but after I finish folding what's left of the clothes in the basket, I have to to a round-up of all the pilfered items, usually located in her toys or under the coffee table. 
I haven't really started much Christmas shopping yet.  I haven't the slightest idea what to give Kurt this year.  Any ideas, people?  We're not getting carried away with gifts for each other, or for baby, either.  I ordered a nifty SB-sized armchair from Crate and Barrel.  She'll get a kick out of it and be able to use it for a few years at least.  I got her the Hallmark Tinkerbell ornament since she was such a fine Tinkerbell for Halloween this year.  That's about it so far.   I have a feeling Grandma may go a little nuts this year...every time I talk to her she's either shopping or just returning home from shopping.  SB is still at the stage where the container is way more interesting than what's inside.  Grandma bought her these cute little handmade finger puppets over Thanksgiving, and she fell in love with the brown paper shopping bag they were in.  She carried the bag around all weekend like a little purse, picking up anything she could find and placing it in the bag.  Then dumping the bag.  Then refilling the bag.  You get the idea.  Good times.  So maybe some empty brown bags for Christmas?  Or a cardboard box?  I think she's be delighted.