We've had most of our Christmas decorations up since before Thanksgiving. I just couldn't wait! 

But we did wait to get our tree until afterwards, mostly because we knew we'd be out of town a few days and it's bad enough asking my neighbor friends to feed my chickens and my dog and my cat and my fish without also asking them to please water my tree. 

Our tree is now up and decorated, or trimmed, and it was a grand old time. Even Wyeth got close to the fun, as you can see. I'm usually the one wearing Wyeth, but Kyle wanted a turn. The wrap he has on is made by one of my best friends, and it's light and stretchy and very comfy to wear. (Best Baby Wraps if you're on facebook, which I'm not...).

And UPS and FedEx are making frequent stops at our house, since I have done 99% of my shopping online. Getting all the kids out of the house is such a huge hassle that I rarely do. In fact, I did yesterday to make a quick run to the Dollar Tree for gift boxes and realized, as I was checking out, that I'd grabbed the diaper bag that didn't have my wallet in it. By some bizarre chance, I had a checkbook on me (that NEVER happens) and they took checks! Panera, next door, did NOT, crushing the hopes of me and my starving kids. I was much cheered to arrive back home and see three boxes waiting for me! It drives Brooklyn crazy that I won't tell her what's in any of them.

This is not our annual family picture, although I'm thinking it would have made a great one! This is us at the DD&F annual Christmas party. Every year, we're given Bob-Bucks and we bid on items without knowing exactly what we're bidding on. There are some awesome prizes, like a KitchenAid mixer or a huge smoker or ginormous flat screen TV.  There are also little packages of adhesive mustaches. That's what we got.

And that's what we wore with great pride.

Even Wyeth rocked his little 'stach. It was truly one of the more hilarious sights I've seen.

It might actually have tied with Dorien in his Selleck 'Stach. 

We love our Golden Retriever. Even though sometimes I want to kill her.

Like when she repeatedly chews through the sprinkler wires or digs up my plants or tracks mud in my kitchen. But mostly I love her.  She's a beautiful cuddle bug of a dog.

And she would prefer nothing more in life than to be just like this in the lap of someone she loves, getting petted. You can just feel her doggie bliss.  Speaking of bliss, Singer was made for this cold weather and ice. She's been bounding around our icy backyard like it's the world's most amazing, fascinating place. Clearly, this is her kind of weather.

Dorien also loves to get right down on Singer's eye level and commune with her.

Rene came home for Thanksgiving, and the kids were all over him. He's like their older brother home from  college. Which, he sort of is.  We consider him part of our family, that's for sure. And since his sister and brother are back in Rwanda, and his parents have passed away, we're honored and blessed to be his American family. 

In the picture above, I was trying to get Rene and the kids working on something, but everytime I looked at a picture I'd just taken, poof, there was Dorien. 

This was my favorite, though. There's something Grinch-like in the way Dorien is sneaking across the picture. He told me he was carrying his hat to Bernae. That's what he calls Rene now. And it's a little contagious. Cause its kind of fun to say. Bernae didn't seem to mind terribly. 

And when Mr. Tool Man walks into the kitchen offering to help do dishes, you'd be a fool to say no. 

He was so diligent and did a great job. And he had his hammer and phone in case the situation became too much to handle with just soap and water.