learning a new lingo

i'm behind on blogging. a lot. we just traded in our old PC for a macbook, and i admit, the iPhoto software has me a bit dazed. it's not as user-friendly as i had hoped. it appears that all my meticulously-organized folders of photos from our last computer got unorganized when they were transferred to the new mac. so finding photos to upload and share has become a challenge. and when i do upload new ones, finding them...period...is also a challenge. so i'll work on it, and go from there!

for now, just a quick update that many good things are happening around here. christmas decorating is done as of today. not sure i've ever done it before december before (granted, it is nov. 30th...but still). we went to a real tree farm for the first time.




wow, people go early for their holiday trees! so many of those trees were spoken for! we picked a tree that really didn't look too large when we were there...but getting it home, we discovered it is big. really big. it's beautiful, but big. i had to buy new lights just to have enough to go up! you probably can't tell from these photos, but we have 9 ft. ceilings and we had to cut the top off the tree (and a foot off the bottom):



we don't have much by way of holiday decor, so it's simple. but nice. and easily put up and torn down :)


the boys are starting to feel the christmas spirit. and we ordered their big joint gift from santa last night (a large bounce house for the basement, to help kill the winter blues and work out that excess energy when we are held up inside).



got their photo taken with santa at bass pro shop. nothing says the holidays like getting your picture taken in front of a dead, stuffed animal. am i right?