Better

Well, things have improved around here. Logan woke up Thursday morning and was feeling much better, though his appetite still doesn't seem totally up to snuff. Auden still has residuals of his sick belly flu, and I (Carly) seem to have a sinus infection or something, but we're generally on the mend. I think Eric, Auden, and I have a date with the doc in the coming week, since I can't seem to shake this annoying cough and Eric's health screening test came back with a low white blood cell count. It's probably a fluke, but with his family history, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Today, it's the series of Saturday rituals: doing laundry, buying groceries, cleaning up the disastrous house. We're planning on purchasing a real Christmas tree today as well. Since Eric and I have been married, we've been putting up an artificial one his parents kindly gave us. It was nice not to have to shell out the big bucks on one ourselves, but since his parents had used it for many years, it's looking a little on the shabby side. We always call it the Charlie Brown tree--the metal "trunk" and "limbs" are starting to show, and it leans to one side, but after some strategic twisting of leftover greenery and placing of ornaments, it actually looks quite nice. Well, this year, I thought we'd start a new tradition. Eric's family went to a tree farm and cut their own tree for many years. Never having done this with my own family, I thought it sounded fun, festive. And when our neighbors asked us if we wanted to join them on their tree-cutting expedition, I told her we'd gladly come along...

So, there we stood, freezing in a tree farm field. Eric wasn't convinced we'd buy one--he said he'd wait and see if a tree "spoke" to him. We were hoping a pine would "speak" to him, since the tree farm owners (tricky fellows) planted pines and firs rather randomly throughout their fields, and the firs were twice as much as the pines. Of course, we had neglected to take one of the brochures that explained how to tell the difference between a pine and fir. Before standing in a field with a bunch of them together, I would have sworn I could have told the difference. Anyway, the neighbors picked out their tree and cut it down. Luckily, they got the right one, and after standing out in the cold for what felt like a very long time, we came home treeless. But, we got free cider donuts out of the deal, and it was nice hanging out with our neighbors and their kids.

So, today we'll get our tree from the Shriner's tree lot, just like I did with my family when I was young...that is, if a tree "speaks" to Eric, I suppose.