Okay, here it is.

What is it you ask? why it is a vase filled with cranberries crammed with woody branches. I made it as a centerpiece for a church function last night. It worked quite well. Is that the best you can come up with for your substitute tree you ask? Yes. Yes it is.

You see, I'm tired. I know. You are tired of hearing me say that I am tired. But it's true all the same. And here we are at the end of another round of rotavirus for Wil. It's been a bad week for him. And he ended with a bang today. He got it all out (do ya know what I mean? he cleared those bowels big time - it musta felt good!) this morning in our front room. I was upstairs changing Timothy's poopy diaper when Luke started screaming ( he is mildly dramatic) that Wil had stinky everywhere. Yup! James got him upstairs to the tub while I finished with T. I then finished up with Wil so James could get to work. I dashed downstairs to gather our things only to find poop everywhere. On the rug, on the sofa, on the books. All discovered as we were loading up to take Luke to pre-school. I couldn't just leave it because that is Wil's "therapy" room and his PT would be arriving shortly after we returned. Fun times. Here is Wil's pitiful self the past few days.

Luke has been keeping himself, and us, entertained by drawing on his socks and providing puppet shows.

And speaking of Luke. He does have some concerns about the "tree." "What if Santa doesn't know what it is?" * "Santa won't know exactly where to leave the presents." * "What if the cranberries go bad?" (good point - I will change those my bright young child) Of course, two days ago Luke came to me and exclaimed, " I don't think that Santa is real." "Oh no?" I say. "No, I just don't think there could be such a person, you know doing all that stuff in one night." "uh, huh, did you talk about that with someone?" I ask "No, I was just thinking it," he shrugged.

Ahhh. . . more good news just came by phone. Our beloved jeep that has been in and out of the shop for the last few weeks must go to the vehicular graveyard. sigh.

So back to the "tree" - yeah - that's the best I can do this year. Sorry kids. :)