We Bought a Tree

While this is primarily the story of how we bought a Christmas tree, I wanted to sneak in the shorter stories of our other recent “big” purchases as a family, just because I like telling the stories.

((A Grill))

We’d never owned a grill during our seven years of marriage. Well, I take that back. We had a George Foreman for the first five years, something Justin already owned when we met. It was our go-to method of cooking chicken to put on salads, among other things, before we got our sous vide. It didn’t survive the We’re Moving Purge of 2018. Anyway….

I didn’t get a picture.

I picked out a darling, bejeweled, dark red dress and a sparkly black sweater for her at the second hand store. I convinced her to wear the sash that came with it in her hair like a headband tied with a bow below her ponytail. Her baby sister was in an off-white ruffley dress with tiny blush pink roses sewn (and carefully safety-pinned, one of them) on, also with a matching headband. My dress was black; an off-white shiny scarf as a shawl brought the plain (nursing-friendly) dress up to level with my fanciest pearl earrings…

Advent Self-Care

This afternoon, my kids are snuggled up in their beds, with their daddy home to keep them safe, while I am in a random chair at the closest local coffee shop we’ve found, sipping water. (I finished my chai latte 15 minutes ago.) The playlist here is a combination of Christmas music and the Eagles. I’m working on a homemade gift for my sister. I finished a podcast episode a few minutes ago. I can hear tidbits of conversation from the other coffee drinkers and the baristas. The windows are oriented just right, here, for plenty of non-direct sunlight…