December 6- The Feast of St. Nicholas

The morning started with a trip to The Fresh Market to peruse its lovely holiday confections. This was what we decided on for the girls' surprise for learning the advent hymn. They loved looking at all the scrumptious candy but were also giddy at the sight of all the gorgeous fruits and vegetables. As I had the camera with me, Lee said he felt a bit like we were "Ma, Pa and the youngins see the big city".
It is a beautiful store and as we all know - it's all about presentation. Margaret Rose decided on a round, little Santa purse that holds mints and Mary Clare finally chose this large, divided box of red and green sweets.
It was suppose to be tree decorating night at our house. We'd invited friends and PoPo. The girls were determined to cut down a tree this year and since a trip to Boone is out we headed out to one of the local farms and see what we could find. Last years trip ended in us choosing a precut fraiser fir as the cut your own choices made Charlie Brown's tree look fabulous. We all enjoyed the farm we chose this year and will likely go back next year. We had a hayride and then spent entirely too much time (this would be Lee's opionion- he's been know to get out of the car, point to the first tree that comes in sight and go home with it) deciding on the perfect tree. We ended up with a white pine which I think is very difficult to decorate but the girls liked it.
When we got home I went into the attic to get a few more boxes of decorations down. I picked up a heavy bag that had lights in it and went to go down the steps when the bottom fell out of the bag. Mary Clare was coming out of her room and headed right under the ladder so I shrieked which startled Lee who in trying to get out of the bathroom door pulled the door over his foot almost removing the entire toenail on his big toe. It was a real mess. Needless to say we cancelled the tree trimming and tended to the injured. I worried the girls would be disappointed but they hardly seemed to notice since Baba provided an opportunity for injury gawking and first aide. Oh how they love a band-aide and Lee's toe with it's barely hanging on nail certainly gave them the chance to try out all types of guaze and tape. Who knows when the tree will get done?!