Catching Up--A Very Busy Few Days!

Well, after last week where I was posting every day, I suddenly was tossed into a whirlwind of travel, arriving home and catching up on all there was after ten days of vacation. Piles of mail, loads of laundry, groceries to be bought, suitcases and bags to be unpacked and put away....and then came Sunday when we did our holiday decorating! Every year is tough because we like to have the tree up before Rachel's birthday, and of course the best time to do that is on the weekend. So that usually means we get home from Boston on Saturday and then we only have Sunday to go get a tree, put it up (which always involves some sort of hassle! This year it was that the trunk was too big for the stand so Matt had to trim the trunk, which took quite some time--and then we finally got the tree put up only to remember that our lights last year were mostly broken so we blithely said we'll get more NEXT year...so I had to run to Target to buy lights! Meanwhile the kids were itching to trim the tree...sigh.)

This year we made a hefty investment in LED lights, which are supposedly indestructible (this is my main reason for getting them, since regular lights drive me nuts with half the string constantly out) and use far less energy (Matt's main reason for wanting them)--however, they are much different from normal lights in that their light is much whiter and brighter than traditional white lights. It is hard for me to get used to them, because I think they look almost flourescent. But Matt pointed out that they look like stars, which made it easier to stand them....

Then yesterday was Rachel's thirteenth birthday. How strange to think of her as being a teenager! I still can't wrap my mind around it. We had a nice day--went to Port Jefferson to see "Barnaby Saves Christmas" at Theater 3, which has become tradition for us. In the afternoon we hung out on the computer and with movies, and Emma helped me make the birthday cake (chocolate with mint whipped cream and ganache on top) while Julia helped me make the sauce for spaghetti and meatballs (Rachel's choice). Gifts weren't much fun because she wanted cash....and today she gets a belated gift--her braces are coming off even as I write this! We have kind of a crazy day today because she will have an impression made of her mouth after the brackets come off, but will have to go back to the orthodontist later when her retainer is ready, plus she has a library program at 4:00, so she avoids school work for another day! (Ben is finished for the day and Julia did some in the morning and is going back to it after a shower.)

--Jen