After rearranging the furniture and making a place for the Christmas tree, it was time to start decking those halls with boughs of holly...and pine, juniper, etc. I was pleased to find ample evergreens and berries right in our own backyard to make wreaths and garlands for the house and to spruce up the faux ones still in rotation.
We have a smaller, tabletop tree again this year but it's full of childhood classic ornanaments and even a red-and-white paper chain garland. It's not our usual tree, but it's just right for a wide-eyed little boy with Santa on his mind. Luke has been pouring over his toy catalogs but is also making some connections that this is Jesus' birthday coming up and that is why we really celebrate. The mixed messages are everywhere, but we all keep muddling through them. I have even found myself resorting to the terrible cliche of "Luke, you know Santa is watching you...." when he's starting to act up or feeling uninclined to listen to me. So yes, you know the holiday season is full upon us.
I suppose I already had one of my big Christmas wishes granted when we awoke to about an inch of heavy, wet, wonderfully white snow last Saturday morning. It covered all the trees and houses beautifully and drew even the older children out early on a weekend morning for a quick snowball fight before the sun melted their fun away. Luke and Ben got in on the action, landing a few good shots on the neighbor girl and her brother, and then we went out for doughnuts in our PJs and boots----a pretty wonderful morning whether you are two or twenty-something. I'd love to see some more snow this holiday, but if I don't we at least had a great start to the Christmas season with snow in the first week of December.
Hello to all our friends and family from our new home in West Knoxville! We've finally moved into a rental home and can at least get our things out of storage and delivered from Italy, Norfolk, and any other locations where they've in limbo waiting on us to get settled down. The house will be very comfortable and a great base for us to explore more of Knoxville and East Tennessee. I think we'll enjoy our new home and the Knoxville area in general. And since there's a swingset already in the backyard, Luke seems to like it pretty well, too. It will be a tough transition not having all his relatives so nearby as we did in Murphy, but a few hours drive to the grandparents in the car sure beats a trans-Atlantic flight any day!
We've not given up on finding a home to buy, but we're taking our time to find the right place and area of Knoxville for us. Knoxville is a lot more spread out than either Ben or I imagined, so we have more areas to visit and hopefully more homes will come on the market in spring. We're settling in for now, though, and looking forward to getting into a regular family routine again. Come by for a visit if you're coming through East Tennessee!
