Thanks given

Went to my in-laws' house for Thanksgiving dinner.

During the blessing, Mikey thanked God that the Democrats won the House and the Senate, which caused a ripple around the table.

The nieces and nephews ate in the kitchen, except for little Karlee who sat on my mother-in-law's lap two seats to my right in the dining room. Karlee is allergic to beef, pork, wheat, eggs, dairy products, and a half dozen other foods. There isn't much she can eat, so her mother fed her spaghetti before they arrived (aren't there wheat and eggs in pasta?) and Karlee vomited it all over my mother-in-law, the table and the empty chair between us. Yay.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, the kids set off the Low-Rider Santa 126 times during dinner. After dinner, I waited until no one was looking and I hid it.

That night, Mikey started pulling all the Christmas stuff out of the attic and got lights strung across the front of the house. While we were standing out in the street admiring his handiwork, Mikey told me he's gonna be Clark Griswold this year, and then he went shopping. So now, among other things, we have lighted candy canes lining the flower beds on both sides of the front door, along with an air-blown Santa and a snowman, both eight feet tall, where the weeping mulberries used to be. Britt insists on calling the snowman the Iceman.

Did you catch that? The weeping mulberries are finally gone! Woo-hoo! Clark finally chainsawed them down yesterday.

Anyway, he's not done yet. The rest of the trees still need to be strung with lights and Clark will probably go shopping again, but we're already the most festive house on the block. I tried to take some pictures last night but they were too dark, so y'all will just have to come over and see. Britt is thrilled.

And now the question that plagued me last year has arisen yet again: To tree or not to tree? We, or really I, finally decided to skip it last year, but Clark says of course we're putting up a tree this year. Two, in fact! Our regular one and the antique aluminum tree that Grandma Sarah gave us. Oh, yay!

I've had a bad case of the blues lately, but Clark's infectious enthusiasm is actually making me feel slightly less Scroogish than usual. So now I must go select some html color codes so I can dress my blog in Christmas colors.