Last night

Last night was out traditional tree-decorating family night. Mama spent most of the day preparing the finger foods that was to be our dinner. We had thin strips of steak, rosemary cheese croquet things served with marinara sauce, sweet and spicy nuts, pitted dates filled with feta cheese and smoked almonds, calzone pinwheels, mini spinach and feta quiches, Cabot cheese and crackers, roasted garlic, apples and dulce de leche, fudge, peanut brittle, gingerbread lattes, and mulled apple cider!!! Abundance! Elvis, Amy Grant, and Twila Paris were singing Christmas songs. There was a fire in the fire place; the stockings were hung. To top it all off, we had Luke to keep us excited (if a little frustrated occasionally)! The setting was perfect. Luke hung nearly every ornament on the tree, and, for once, we managed to have a tree that doesn't necessarily look overloaded! The size and stability of the tree itself prevented many of the ornaments from being hung up. According to another tradition, and upon Luke's insistence, we four kids slept in the living room with the newly-decorated tree.