I tried to convince the boys that having a book tree like last year's would be so cool. After all, they're living with a writer. BUT... they'd have nothing to do with a Christmas tree made out of books, so... We did the Christmas deal.
The boys had a great time decorating the tree, making Christmas cookies, and going crazy at Connie's and Ben's. Both William and I have bad backs, so Soenke went Christmas shopping with the Adley family and some of the Foreigns, and we two invalids stayed at home with the barking dog who followed us up and down the staircases for 2 hours while we put lights in windows. I don't yet have a picture of the whole house, but I have this one of the wreath and one light. The wreath came to us from our friend Julie Cheville, a writer and professor from Illinois who stayed in our Weld camp during the month of September to work on a book. After the light work, William went back to killing people online while Bailey decided to guard the house and bark at every single noise both inside and out. (DOG FOR SALE.)
We're behind on everything holiday as I've been swamped with work at the university. We did get a holiday picture taken yesterday, but I'm not yet sharing it here. I will, however, share another one of the three boys on Bailey's Victorian Bed.
Bailey's had two great gifts so far. Andy the Anteater and now a ginormous bones covered in chicken strips. The chicken strips did something "fun" with his insides and he developed gas... Just ask Sonke, "Oh, Bailey... go outside!"
I'm not sure whether you'll be able to access this article in the regional newspaper, but it's about the high school ski team that William and Sonke have joined. I raced on this team (as did my brothers and sister) and coached the team for many years. I also coached the state ski teams for both alpine and nordic. Hopefully, you can access the article by clicking here. Below is a picture of the kids doing balance drills Yo can see Sonke's facets on the left beneath the boy on the left's left arm. (How, how complicated was that?) We're having a warm late fall right now because of El Nineo. Last year, we had a ton of snow by now. That's Maine!
When I go away, Bailey stays with Sharon who cares for up to 5 dogs at a time. She's partial to big dogs, so Bailey and this crew are her favorites.
Our community has a chorus that puts on holiday concerts and a mystery theater in the spring. On Saturday night, the boys went with Uncle Ben and his son Ian to watch Connie sing in the community concert. And, our Aunt Connie had a solo! After the concert the boys gave Connie a bouquet of flowers to celebrate her performance. Here's a picture that Ian captured.
Bailey opened his present with my help and met Andy the Anteater. He immediately ran out of the kitchen with the little critter and played with him in the TV room. The idea of opening holiday presents every day in December like in Denmark made me uneasy. I'm accustomed to waiting/suffering for a whole month until Christmas Day, the 25th. But today was my day to receive a present, and lo and behold... does this make me a bad man? :-)
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