And we’re back

First, a few gratuitous photos.

  

More up at Flickr.

The kids are now back at school, and we’ll try to get back into a groove before Christmas holidays hit and derail everything again. We put up the tree tonight, which went much faster than in years past, now that Gabe is old enough to be goal-oriented in the task. On the other hand, it got much more frustrating with four hands trying to plunge into the little box of used-to-be-hooks (which are now more of a free-form wire sculpture). Eric’s at the store buying more hooks now, for the handful of ornaments that didn’t make it to the tree before we ran out of salvageable hangers. We probably don’t technically need to have those ornaments up, but the chance for quiet was too tempting to skip…

Sam argues that we needed to wait on the tree, as apparently it won’t be “Christmas season” until tomorrow, when we flip the calendar to December. Gabe is simply going to be incensed when it comes time to take it all down.

I fade. Bedtime.