Santa Bells and Sniffles

Well it's finally looking a lot like Christmas. All of Brenton's presents have safely arrived, are wrapped, and under the tree. Speaking of trees, ours is put up, beautifully lit, with all my childhood ornaments adorning its branches. We didn't have a star or angel to put on top, and they're surprisingly expensive. So, we took one of my Belle barbie dolls, put her in her red and gold Christmas dress, and placed her on top of the tree. I love it. It makes me smile every time I see it. Decorations are thoughtfully placed around the apartment, and the atmosphere is generally lovely. It's a pleasant scene to come home to after a sorely trying day. We even had our first heavy snowfall on Monday, so even the ground and trees outside are putting on their frosty coverings for the season.

Our Christmas cards are in the mail, and our Santa e-mail is in full swing. For those that haven't heard, we have set up a Santa e-mail for children to write to and get a letter back from Santa Claus. It is Santa.CommDept@gmail.com . Please feel free to forward it along to anyone who might be interested. It's a joy to read the sweet letters from children. I'm amazed at how many of them say, "I love you, Santa." We've enjoyed reading them so much.

I'm grateful for all of the Christmas frivolity, because it's been a very long week. I didn't realize that when you're married, if one spouse catches a cold/virus, it's only a matter of time before the other one does. Usually this occurs just as the other one is feeling better. So after two weeks of frustration and irritation while one spouse recovers, those two weeks are stretched into a month of agitation. I think both of us have had it with the cold season. It was my turn to catch the friendly cold, and it's been pretty nasty. Not enough to take a sick day, well, I'm out of sick days thanks to the swine flu in October, so I couldn't take a day off if I wanted to. Just enough to make me uncomfortable, grouchy, and all together exasperated and huffy. In the midst of this, it's so nice to see the tree, and listen to Christmas music in the car. Or to make pie and smell the cinnimon scented room spray in the office. It's kind of what's keeping me moving forward.

I've got a lot to look forward to though. It's my birthday on Monday, and a week later Brenton and I are on a plane headed for a wonderful Virginia Christmas with family, and all things merry. I can't wait. *sniffle*