It's Beginning to Look at Lot Like Christmas!

Since we generally travel for the holidays and our week away from home this Christmas grants no exception, I waste no time getting the tree up for maximum enjoyment and, as Ben points out, maximizing our holiday carbon footprint.  My environmentally conscious friends forgive me, but I love our tree.  Really, I love any tree.

Our Thanksgiving meal went off without a hitch, including the best free-range, locally raised (for you Al!) little bird ever to cross my oven (it's all in the brine!). Nicole, Ben and I feasted on all the trimmings including yukon gold potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce and my family's bread stuffing cooked both inside the bird (my fav!!) and in a dish for those of you who don't like to think about your stuffing having been in the turkey's behind (we'll add a shout out to Boxy here!). Ended our delicious day with homemade pumpkin pie and hand whipped cream. Yum!

After the requisite 45 minutes of laying around complaining about just how full we were and whether we might be stretching the limits of the human stomach, we cleaned up the kitchen, packed up the leftovers and commenced with Operation Christmas Tree!  With such a small condo we had to give up the 8' wonder that once adorned our Lincoln Park apartment in Chicago and settle for a smaller six footer.  But with all the loving holiday touches it still warms my heart as much as its grander cousin did.  And the bonus? Two less feet of tree to reassemble when the cat inevitably knocks it over.