Finally . . . a tree!

Maybe you are asking yourself, "Why are the Frandsen's just now putting up their Christmas tree?! There is only 1 week until Christmas?!" Well we had the best intentions of getting that tree done earlier but there were things conspiring against our festive mood. As soon as Mark finished his exams he was rushed off to do his Christmas tour to Iraq. We thought he would then be able to have one week of leave to do all the "Christmas" festivities but unfortuntatley that didn't work out and he found himself right in the middle of a new hard working, booked solid, AF band. Oh, and we did get our tree a week ago, but then the nasty grinch himself surfaced in the form of the flu and everyone but McKenna came down with it. Finaly the sad bare tree pleaded with us, "Please make me pretty!" and so we did it and we did it right. We gave that tree lots of pretty lights, a couple of new ornaments and lots of candy canes and a big read sparkly star on top. We played Christmas music, ate gingerbread cookies and drank hot chocolate. Mark and I were so tickled with McKenna as she became mesmorized by those pretty red beads, and we reminisced about Bailey doing the exact same thing with those beads when she was that age. What is it about those beads? the red color? the noise they make when you jingle them? or just how magnificent it feels to have THAT many beads around your neck when you are a little girl? No matter what, I don't think I'll ever get rid of those beads. So now we are so close to being ready for the big day, all that is left is some last minute shopping. My hope is that by this weekend we will be finished and will be able to take Mark to his first Christmas Market of the season.