December Daily 2019 MEGAAA thread

Thanks! Those are adorable!

Wow. It's been crazy. Thanksgiving we went to my parents house and all the family was there. The kids always decorate the tree so I got some great pics and that's my day 1.
Day 2 I did of us going to get our tree.

But get this. Before we got home, my husband's hands were covered in welts! The tree is an evil demon and the needles are like real needles and everytime it poked him, he would swell up in that area. We somehow got lights on it without being scratched to bits but we had to put half the ornaments away. If they didn't have a hook, the tree would bite you putting the ornaments on! So we set what we could on the branches but had to give up.

I've never had a tree try to hurt us!

So that is day 3. I'm going to see if Aaron will recreate the moment when one of the needles was actually stuck in his finger.
I took a picture of the tree all pretty but I'm going to write about it being evil and take some close-ups of its evilness.

But here's the other thing. My daughter is 11 now and clearly knows the elf is not real anymore but she really wanted the elf to be real.
So I found a green bag and Owen showed up with the bag so she got to look through the bag and we talked about how she is now the creator of magic and she gets to move the elf. I was bawling. The elf has really brought so much joy. I mean he came with me to Disney last year!

So the good news is that she is loving moving the elf. She has been searching for ideas and has a long list of things to do with him.

But overall it's bittersweet, the growing up. We are past the halfway point of her living in our house and it's just hard for me.

I can't have anymore kids and that was never the plan but that's life and she's great so anyway.


I love Christmas. I'm going to buy a pink tree that's pre-lit when I get a good deal. If you're going to go fake, might as well go all the way.

I love seeing everyone's pages on Insta!

What!?!? You can’t replace the bulbs!?!?!

No!!!!!

With our old tree we kept the lights taped to the tree stand.

My new tree I taped them inside the pot because it’s a potted tree.

lol. that's weird! 
I have noticed her wearing long long sleeves like she gets very cold (although a friend pointed out that some people wear the thumbhole sleeves all the time to hide scars from cutting, which I don't think is the case but I could never get out of my mind). I wondered if she's just a cold person, or if they keep the house cool. My hubby is known to work from home in a puffy coat or a beanie at times... but that's because our 100 yo house can't seem to hold onto heat and we're cheap - we have the heat set to ~63F when we're home. I wouldn't have though AE would be crazy like us though. 

She’s wearing a baseball cap, not a ski hat. I took it like she was filming right before or right after a workout or a run. I know she’s been wearing a puffy jacket in the photos of her walks/runs on her wellness Instagram.

You have awesome stories to tell! 😁  Those pages will be so good!

Yesterday the two youngest decorated the big window with snowflakes and snowmen. I have to grab a pic of the finished product today because it was dark when they finished. (Is it wrong that I'm excited that i have a snowflake mini punch and snowmen stamps and i know that page will turn out good?!😁)

A match made in heaven: Stephen King + Russell Stover!
Thanks for the laugh, I love them both.

Aw, this is the BEST! Love that she has a long list. What a great memory to capture!

Thanks you guys for the replies!

My husband refuses to recreate the moment with the needle in his finger though.

I’ll figure something out! It is a beautiful tree.

First of all, I absolutely LOVE that this thread has become a place for our December stories, I've been finding myself looking forward to seeing if there any replies in here (not that I wasn't looking forward before, but not it feels rather special in here right now). Hugs to all of you who are finding this month hard.

It's been rather quiet this past couple of days, today I am just catching up on my DD (already!) and doing some tidying before we get our tree at the weekend, yesterday I popped into our local florist to buy a few things for the wreath I'll make next week. But Monday was a bit special. Went to East London with a friend and wandered around Spitalfields. We ate bao for lunch, got a (free!) mince pie from a favourite baker with a coffee, enjoyed the neon Christmas lights and drank mulled wine, but we were mostly down to visit Dennis Severs' House, It's a strange place, not quite a museum, not quite an art installation, but the experience is incredible and wonderous. It's a house that is decorated as if it were still in the 18th century, and at this time of year is full of Christmas decorations. You are greeted at the entrance and then you step through into the house. No phone and photos are allowed and you are to tour the building in silence. You essentially step into a time warp. It really feels like you are suddenly in the Victorian era, with furniture, Christmas food, letters, toys and books left just so that you get the feeling that the family who live here have just nipped out. There are no plaques, no information on the history, just an immersive space. There must be electricity in there because there is piped sound where you hear the faint toll of a church bell or a rumble of a horse and cart in the street below, but you can't see any speakers. You don't see any electric lights either, the house is lit as it would have been all those years ago, with candles (real ones!) and the fires in the hearths are the only form of heating. It made me very grateful for central heating and double glazing! As you enter the servants quarters, it feels as sparse and poor as it should, with simple furniture, clothes hanging everywhere, holes in the ceiling plugged with sheets, the only Christmas decorations being a paper chain made from newspaper, a tiny chair by the fire, with a tiny walking stick lent against it. And for some proper realism, an actual live black cat sat at the end of the butler's bed, wagging her tail angrily at all these visitors walking around in her room. It's an experience like no other and you come out of the house blinking and finding the sunlight and skyscrapers around you jarring.

As soon as fall rolls around she always dresses like her house has no heat. Personally, I draw the line at crafting in a puffy coat.