Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I wanted to go outside to take a walk today—it was right around 60°F (15°C) this afternoon—but Phoebe just wasn't feeling up to it. She lazed about all morning (while Alexander and Zoë were at Lydia's baptism (an interesting place for them to be; she is the daughter of my friend and the daughter of Darla's new son-in-law, who is now married to one of Darla's daughters—it's a complex relationship)). 

Instead I threw myself into decorating the house for Christmas.

I've wanted to make a little tree tent for a while now and have slowly collected the supplies from the Buy Nothing Group—a little teepee tent and lots of garland. This year I finally had everything I needed to put it together. Zoë helped me figure out how to do it. We got faux pine needles everywhere.

Zoë made the inside nice and cozy, putting some foam puzzle pieces down on the floor and filling it with all our Christmas blankets and pillows. It's very cozy. 

Is one of those "blankets" actually a tablecloth? Sure. But we embrace alternative uses for items.

We decorated the tree-tent with the snowmen from our wedding luncheon. Zoë found some of the comments on those snowmen to be "a little bit mean and a little bit funny," and concluded that they were thus written "teasingly." I would say that is true for many of the comments, though some do contain serious advice and genuine well-wishes. 

A teasing example might come from Uncle Jacob, who wrote, "Have a nice life, puds," or anonymous, who wrote, "No eat tie."

Someone queried: "How do I get Warcraft 3 to work?"

A genuine well-wish came from Sister Dusara, who wrote, "Love, laugh, and fight, and surely make-up. Makes all the fun!" and another from Grandpa Frank, who wrote, "Always remember what you heard in the temple from your sealer. You have a great life together [forever]."

Zoë found our door wreath (which was mysteriously missing, and which also is decorated with snowmen from our wedding) and she noted that someone wrote, "Andrew—I cannot wait until you are dead," on one of the snowmen. 

"Who would do something like that on your wedding day?!" she asked, aghast. 

"Oh," I said, glancing at the signature, "That was James Gillespie."

"What?!" she choked. "James Gillespie did that?!"

"Awww, he was just a kid," I said.

James and his little family are stopping by for a couple of days next week on their way down to Florida. As it turns out, a person can do a lot of growing up in twenty years (apparently that's how long ago our wedding was—twenty years). Still, I think James will have some explaining to do. 

Anyway, while I was busy getting the house decorated for Christmas, Phoebe decided to help herself to a little snack.

Darla had been craving pumpkin pie. So she baked an entire pumpkin pie, ate a slice, and sent the rest of the pie over with Grandpa when he came to pick up Alex and Zoë this morning. I had a slice for breakfast. 

And then...to answer my mom's question of, "Who happened to your pie?" when I sent her this picture...Phoebe happened.

Luckily her attack on the pie didn't affect the taste at all—it's still delicious!

When she saw the picture she blustered, "What? Who? Did I do that?!"

In her mind she had done a much...tidier...job of cutting that pie than what is evidenced in the picture.

Benjamin had a swim meet this afternoon, which stretched into the evening. Andrew took him and was a timer for the duration of the meet. So we had dinner on our own. Fortunately, I brought home some leftovers from yesterday's Relief Society dinner and that was plenty for us to eat for dinner this evening. 

It was still nice and warm out, so we decided to take a little walk in the evening to enjoy looking at all our neighbours' lights, as well as our own.

Zoë had the idea to stand with Darth Vader like she was being held hostage. For some reason my phone didn't take the picture of her (although I remember going through the action of taking a picture, there is no picture on my phone). There is, however, a picture of Alexander copying her pose.

We will have to retake Zoë's picture later.

Here are the kids in front of a neighbour's light tunnel:

And here is Alexander enjoying a turn in the tree-tent after Phoebe had been put to bed:

This evening's Christmas devotional came from Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson's 2014 Christmas Devotional address "Christmas is Christlike Love." In it she used the word cantankerous and the kids thought that was a delightful word, but not all were sure what it meant. 

Was it an optimistic shipping company slogan? Can Tank R Us!

Was it a kind of dinosaur—cantakerasaurus?

"It means," Zoë said, "Precisely how Phoebe's been acting all day. Cantankerous!"

And, uh, she's not wrong. 

Phoebe has been a bit of a screamin' demon today. She is not happy about her shots and how they're making her feel and she's not afraid to take her feelings out on everyone around her (not to mention that poor, innocent pie). 

Cantankerous!

So, we didn't force her to share the tent with Alexander during our Christmas devotional (though she did insist that I share it with her and he did worm his way into the tent with us, being careful to stay on the other side of me). 

He was excited for her to go to bed so that he could have his turn in the cozy tent. He stayed in there while I read to him and Zoë from The Good Master. We'll probably end up carrying this tent downstairs on Christmas Eve for the sibling Christmas Eve sleepover.