It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Christmas 2005 is thundering down the time continuum at a breakneck pace.We're getting ready, but it seems like such small steps that Christmas will be over by the time we're all done. I remember so well the agony of waiting for Christmas to arrive when I was a kid. December was the longest month on the calendar. Now it's more like "Wasn't it just Summer? Don't-blink-D'oh!-You-missed-it." Haven't gotten anything for Mrs. Dave for Christmas yet. Got her birthday (Dec. 24, ain't she lucky!) present, but that's all.

But anyway, here's our Christmas tree this year. In this photo, I used the long exposure time and a tripod, and it came out pretty well. The picture isn't excessively yellow because of the camera or the light, our walls are actually yellow. In this picture, the tree isn't finished, it was still a work in progress. You can see the blur of my son and wife's hands in the lower right. Oh, please don't mind the needles and stuff on the floor, we cleaned those up later...



Warning: The "awwwwww" factor is high for this next photo! Although not nearly as pathetic as Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, my son decided that our tree just needed a little love. And if that doesn't make sense, go watch the Charlie Brown Christmas Special again. He's a very compassionate little boy.



But now the tree is fully decorated. Ours is a nostalgic tree more than a work of art. We get a new sourdough ornament every year and always get at least one, if not two ornaments from places we've traveled to. So, this year we had a "snowman" that was made to look like he was made of ice, but when you look closer, you see he's actually dice. We also got one of the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. I'll post a pic of the completed tree soon.

Oh, and one of the things that we did the weekend before last was go to HersheyPark. They open around the holidays so you can go buy candy, see Santa and his reindeer, drink the best damn hot chocolate you ever had, have some fun and see the Sweet Lights, a huge, huge light display that you drive through. It's neat. But, while we were there, we took the kids to see Santa Claus. Well, he had to be simply THE most boring Santa Claus ever. He barely moved. He didn't speak, I'd have thought he was a mannequin if his eyes didn't occasionally move. But he didn't ask the kids what they wanted or anything. But I think this photo explains a lot:



I have more photos from Hershey, just no time to post this minute. Gotta run!

Dave