I am behind, SO behind with my usual holiday season preparations. With G’s illness followed almost immediately by mine, I just haven’t been able to stick to my usual routine for this time of year. But so it goes.

Today – Sunday – I hauled myself out of bed for the first time since this Mack truck of a malady hit me, and I tried to spend as much time with the kids as possible, given that I’ve been completely useless for the past 4-5 days. I still felt tired and shaky much of the day, but it was wonderful to be up and about,

In the early afternoon today, my sister and I took our girls (minus G) to see The Nutcracker. (Thanks Dr. D!)

Afterward, E and I went tree scouting, and I think we found a good ‘un at the tree lot over in Fountain City.

Here’s cousin El with our tree once Jon had gotten it into the house but before any lights or decorations had been added.

Everyone seemed kind of exhausted and cranky tonight during our traditional tree decorating activities, so I didn’t have as many eager elves to assist as I would have liked. Mostly everyone just laid around on the couch or the floor and ate cookies while I unwrapped and hung ornaments.

See what I mean? Leo was totally lazy and no help at all.

But as is generally the case, I can always count on E’s enthusiasm for all-things-Christmas, and he more than made up for any laziness this evening on the part of other children who shall remain nameless.

I did finally manage to get SOME help from various offspring, nieces and nephews. Here I am (floor) handing out ornaments for hanging to E, NC, and our resident 2 year old, who insisted on decorating au naturel this evening.

And here’s E after he put the star on top of the tree all by himself – a first. We all agree that this is the most beautiful tree we’ve ever had… But of course we say that every year.

I’m nowhere near finished getting all the decorations put up all over the house, but at least we have the main tree up and lit (I have a second, smaller tree I plan to put in our dining room this year). I’m trying not to stress about what I haven’t gotten done yet, or about how I’ve fallen behind in my usual holiday schedule. Honestly, nobody probably cares except me whether I get the bannister railing wrapped in ribbon, the Christmas-themed china out for us to use all month, or even whether this becomes the first year in a long time when we don’t have any holiday lights up on the porch. Right?

So now I’m going to go have some eggnog and admire E’s handiwork on the tree lights before I hit the sack.