It was a long peaceful day.. we all decided not to do much today… Diane went out this morning for an early morning grocery run.. but aside from that we pretty much stayed around the neighborhood…. settling into the holiday spirit. We kept one of Sam’s lamps burning all day to keep him as part of our day, too.

The first order of business today was to finish decorating the tree.. The boys had decided that this year’s tree would be a pirate .. (last year a monster, the year before that a robot, … something different each of the last 5 years) .. They went up to the attic and fetched down our best pirate garb.. a skull mask. dreadlocks, a sword, a hook.. and sam’s pirate vest.. in only a few minutes our simple tree was transformed into the prettiest pirate tree you can imagine.. if that’s something you can imagine

 

then it was time to decorate tree number 2. Each year we go out in the woods to decorate a tree for the animals. We headed up the Catamount trail . we bundled up as it was just about 13 degrees..

 

we found a perfect little tree near one of our favorite swimming holes.. and started putting out the decorations, old bagels and doughnuts we’d gotten from the store. peanut butter, birdseed, old cereal, stale croissants . We’ll go clean up th string in the spring..

it was wonderful being all together today..  i love my family so much !

 

later in the day we drove around the neighborhood visiting friends.. here we are at freind martha’s.. she had a really nice gathering at her house..

 

she had one of the Sam ornaments we made on her tree..

 

now it’s about midnight.. I need to get some sleep…. I’ll be listening for reindeer.

merry christmas everyone.., merry christmas sam… we’re missing you very much tonight..

-me