Thankfully, we still have Thanksgiving leftovers tonight. We made a turkey stock Saturday and Robin enjoyed a little soup with Sunday’s lunch. We hadn’t planned on including it in the cookbook, but it was so good, we make it again tonight!

The big activity today was decorating the Christmas tree. Normally, we get the tree the day after Thanksgiving and decorate it that Saturday. The weather wasn’t cooperating, so we had to wait until Sunday (and, unfortunately, until after Grandma left).

Some would find it strange to get the tree that early, but not us. We like the Christmas holiday very much and are always eager to ensconce ourselves in all the trappings.

Another reason for getting the tree early is Christmas cards. For the past three years, we’ve taken a picture of the kids in front of the tree using the digital camera. We upload that picture to Ofoto.com, and get Christmas cards with them on it. The kids are a terrible bother about the process, but that’s the beauty of digital cameras – take 100 pictures and, if you’re lucky, you’ll get one that works. If not, delete them all, take a break and try again. The kids were younger last year, so we hope they’ll do better this year.

Since it’s a work day, we don’t have time to do the pictures today. We’ll give it a try on Friday since Chris is taking a vacation day. No, after a Christmas-y day and a very hearty meal, we head out to one of our little family’s favorite destinations – Starbucks. Yes, we’re all terribly spoiled, but we must admit that we adore the atmosphere. Tonight we finish up the day with two kids hot chocolates (the kids), coffee (Chris) and a Decaf, Skim, Gingerbread Latte (Robin). Drinks, a shared peppermint brownie, and some Christmas music make for a relaxed end to our getting-ready-for-Christmas day.

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