You didn't think I was going to do it, did you?

In between soccer playoffs, the flag football banquet, the Cub Scout December meeting, the Geometry of Architecture fourth grade math project which involved re-creating and then writing about the geometric principles of one of the world's great architectural masterpieces, ours being the Seattle Space Needle (due, of course, on the second to last day of school before vacation, what the hell is the teacher insane?), the snowglobe project where the Boy had to bring in a damn jelly jar, the back and forth and then withdrawal from my fellowship, the lacrosse practice, the poetry reading and the seizures, well,

HERE YOU GO and Fa La La La La La La La La La!!

don't gag on the sweetness, but the Chef is paper-mache

simplified mantel, looks better in the dark when lit with little tiny lights 

the owl ornament is mine from 1971 -- made in West Germany when that was still a country

each year I give an ornament to The Husband and my three children, a tradition that I'm carrying on from my own childhood

trains and boys and men -- no more need be said

this might be the first year that the Swiss Husband relinquished the decorating

Sort of Creepy Santa, but I love him