Not as luxurious as I imagined.

This precariously crooked tree is the result of not having a man here to saw the lower branches off and screw the darned thing in. My ailing back was incapable of making this work, and while Cameron and Ethan did their best to help, we are simply unable to set the tree straight. Andrew will fix it when he gets home, and until then, we are hoping it doesn't fall on any of the babies - unless they keep grabbing at the ornaments, and then I'll just push it over on them. Teach them a lesson, you see.

And speaking of things that we can't do until Andrew gets home, we are sitting here in our cozy living room with the sun shining on the snow and sending blinding light into our living room - the perfect lazy Sunday - and we're not allowed to watch any Christmas movies without Andrew. He put us on strict orders not to watch a single one without him. Seeing as he misses out on a lot of family stuff since he works on Saturdays, I am obeying the rule. Miracle on 34th Street would be so lovely right now. However, he's been enjoying himself tremendously without us, and is at this very moment enjoying an IMAX showing of A Christmas Carol. So why we should be miserably abstaining, I don't know. Except we took the kids to see that movie last weekend, so maybe it doesn't count?

I had some high hopes for this weekend. There were so many things that I wanted to do with Andrew away. Like sleep diagonally in the bed. (Drew is sick and is rooming with me, so that's not happening.) Or read for hours straight. (Kids are still here, so that's not working.) Have no one leave their belongings strewn all over right in front of the front door. (We had to do a lot of rearranging to make room for the tree, so that matter has actually gotten worse.) But I'll tell you what - the one thing that I wanted most out of this weekend is perfectly attainable. We have not had the television on a sports channel for twenty-four hours straight. And by the time the man of the house returns, it will be a solid sixty-eight, at least. That right there is a huge triumph as far as I'm concerned. The weekend will not be a total failure.

Anyway, I guess I'll go do the dishes now so that I can make dinner in a while. We are so having lasagna for dinner. Andrew will be having steak, so the lasagna won't make him very jealous- until he finds that I am saving the mac and cheese and chili dogs for when he's here.