Merry Perfection

I've been told that a perfectionist is not someone who wants things perfect but someone who wants them perfectly their way. My name is Samantha Ellsworth and I'm a perfectionist. So everybody gather up for a little tale of how the Ellsworth's got their Christmas tree.

On a cool December day we set out to Pfaff's U-Cut Tree farm to wrangle ourselves a tree. This is a tradition or it was until this year. (Joe says I'm never allowed to come on the tree cutting again.) Since there's about 20 minutes of daylight left from the time Joe gets home and the sun sets we tried to speed to Pfaffs to get our tree. After a lot of fruitless searching Joe and I found we had different hopes for what the tree would be like. He wanted a "Charlie Brown" type that would cost less than $25 and I wanted A tall beautiful Noble like the ones I'd grown up in Oregon with for the same price. That tree doesn't exist, so after wandering a while and each of my girls leaving some kind fluid amongst the trees and on the cuffs of their pant legs we desperately cut one that looked ok in the dark. Bad idea. We got home, put it on the stand, and I began to string lights. It was just like a slap-stick comedy. The minute I touched the tree with the first strand, needles started falling off in such huge amounts that it actually made a small thud on the carpet. Joe tried to convince me that it would be fine and so I let him think he had.
But the next day after he'd left to work and the kids had gone to school. I jerked the skeletal evergreen out the front door, hoisted it atop the van and bungeed it down. I then left tread marks on the driveway as I rocketed to Pfaffs in order to have the whole thing taken care of before lunch. I showed them the tree and the nice Danes at Pfaffs grudgingly allowed me to pick another. Betsy was asleep in the car so Tess and I set off to find it. I'm betting Tess put 3 or 4 miles on her poor little dogs before I realized, like the Grinch, that the problem wasn't the tree it was me. I was impossible to please. So I started hacking at the nearest tree to my knees which I'd fallen on in frustration. It was enormous and I had to lug that thing at least a half a mile to the car. Even Joe was impressed by the weight of the tree when unloading it but Voila! Now we have a "Turkish" Christmas tree that fills our entire front room and which we had to cut at least a foot off both the top and bottom. Ahhh the Christmas spirit. . .

In other news. We enjoyed a terrific Thanksgiving in Eugene with my parents and three of my siblings. The green bean casserole was crunchy, the bird was smokey delicious and pie was made an honorary food group for the weekend. After feasting, glutting, lounging and chatting we tackled Black Friday the next day only to be shut out. There's a reason the doors open at 5AM, don't expect to get anything around lunch time. To drown our sorrows we forced our husbands to accompany us to the theaters for New Moon. There was serious eye rolling during the feature and lots of mockery after and I hate to say it but it was well deserved. Kind of a bomb, but hopefully we can make it a post-thanksgiving tradition. Stevo, with any luck, they'll break the next book into two movies!!! O-M-G!!!!
Before Thanksgiving and weeks of cold and flu set in we had a whole bunch of late fall fun. We raked and jumped in leaves, the gals went to Disney On Ice and a glut of Halloween candy was consumed.
Today the little girls treated us to their Christmas program at preschool. Those are the best! and I'm so sad Gunner and Scottie have moved out of it. Thankfully it's just a year or so until I can force Gunner into band or choir so I can once again dress him up and make 'em dance.

Disneyland and Christmas have a special place in my heart and I think it's catching. Even Joe hums little Christmas tunes around the house and he actually asked me for my Christmas list!! We love filling our kid's heads with good Santa stories and of course taking every opportunity to teach them a little about why we celebrate at all. I'm sure Joe will be posting a Christmas letter soon, until then, Merry Christmas!