And so this is Christmas...

Merry (almost) Christmas everyone!

As you can see, we have our tree up and lit and lovely, and the stockings are hung by the chimney with care. We had a Christmas party last Sunday and had our friends decorate globe ornaments for our tree. I now can say fancy things like, "Every ornament on our tree is unique and custom-made by a local Chicago artist."

Since last week when I found out Meng had purchased my Christmas gift, we've been playing the what-is-it game. Today when he got the box out to wrap it, I discovered that my Christmas gift and my Birthday present are in identical brown boxes (My birthday is early next month). Below you can see his meticulous work.

Today's guessing-game went something like this:

"Is my Christmas present and my Birthday present used for the same purpose?"

"No, I really wouldn't recommend using them for the exact same purpose. I don't think that would work very well."

"Well are they used for a similar purpose?"

".....yyyyyeesss. Yes. If you broaden the category wide enough, yes, they are used for a somewhat similar purpose."

"That's not an answer. That could be said about anything! That could be said about a window-shade and a porcupine!"

"Exactly."

"So is that what you got me? A window shade and a porcupine?"

"Absolutely. I got you a very small porcupine. Which is dead by now."

"You killed a porcupine just for me? Did you use your bear hands?"

"No, I used gloves."

"What about the window-shade. Did you kill that with your bear hands?"

"No, I made it with my bear hands. What else was I going to do with the rest of the porcupine?"

Yes, people, this is our normal, every day conversation. I'll be interested to see what it actually is. In the meantime, I'll keep frantically knitting the scarf I would like to give to my mother-in-law while keeping Emma from pulling down my custom-designed ornaments.