What a Life!

I set up the Christmas tree yesterday afternoon. Steve isn’t big on decorating for Christmas. In fact, we didn’t own a tree or even put one up until last year (meaning that the first two years were married we did not have a tree). Steve has always drug his feet and wanted to wait until the last minute to put it up. He gets tired of listening to Christmas music at work so he never wants to listen to it at home. It’s like he would be happier if he could pretend Christmas didn’t exist until December 25th, and then he would exchange gifts with his family, eat ham, and be done with it.

This year I told him I wanted to put the tree up the first week of December. Yesterday was the 8th, but close enough. He approved of my plan but didn’t seem excited about it, as I expected. I had the tree stored in the closet downstairs where I also happened to be hiding Christmas gifts, so I would have needed to move the gifts first if I was to get the tree out while he was at home. So I set it up while he was at work.

Of course, Ben was right there watching me as I got it out of the closet. Then I took it upstairs and started to assemble it. Our tree is pre-lit and happens to be in three sections. I put the first section in the stand, placed it where I wanted it, and then fluffed the branches a little. Ben thought that was rather interesting.

Then I put the middle section in. You should have heard Ben – he laughed hysterically! It was like it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. He just laughed and laugh – you know, that full belly giggle that little kids have. It was the funniest thing! I put the top section in and he laughed some more. I thought he might start rolling on the floor, he was laughing so hard!

And I felt so bad that Steve wasn’t there to see it. Steve is always taking video of silly things Ben does, but I never get that camera out. I’ll come home and he’ll tell me something Ben did and then show me. Well, there was no way I could assemble the tree and operate a DVD recorder in order to capture the moment. That tree is not light, by any means, and it took both hands for me to assemble it properly.

So the Christmas tree was up. I keep fiddling with it and fluffing the branches so it looks better. Ben will go over to the tree and mess [gently] with the branches himself. One time when I was doing that, I paused for a moment and pushed my hair out of my eyes with my hand. Ben stopped messing with the tree and patted the hair on his head. His middle name right now should be Copy-Cat, I tell you!

I called Steve at work to tell him what we were doing. At least he could laugh about it with me. He was glad to get a call where it wasn’t someone wanting him to do something as though he didn’t already have enough to do. And he enjoyed hearing about our amusing moments.

We still need to put the decorations on the tree. I thought I would save that for when Steve was home. Last night he shoveled snow from the driveway and sidewalks while I finished making supper, then we ate supper and soon after that, Steve put Ben to bed. So we didn’t really have time to put any decorations on the tree together as a family.

I keep wondering if we’re taking an unnecessary risk by putting the tree up anyway with a toddler in the house. I’ve seen pictures of other parent’s trees where the tree was stripped to about the middle by the curious toddler. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen to ours. I also wrapped two gifts and got them ready to put under the tree. But I haven’t put them down there yet because I am worried that Ben will mess with them. Be my luck, Ben would mess with the gifts while I wasn’t home and then Steve would have to put them back which means he would have an opportunity to lift and shake his gift and try to figure out what it is. It’s a big box that doesn’t weigh very much. I don’t know if that’s an obvious clue or not.

So perhaps this weekend we will finish decorating our tree. I have the decorations box out and ready to go, but I want to make sure we finish up this job as a family so at least one of us can be operating the DVD recorder if we have one of those moments again.

Did you know that people are going to be saving lots of money on heating bills this winter? Steve said he hear Rush Limbaugh talking about this yesterday. It seems people will be saving money on heating bills just like the Democrats structure their spending cuts in Congress. Instead of heating bills being 40% higher than they were last year, as was predicted after Katrina hit last summer, people are only going to see increases of 6 to 21% this year. Think of all the money everyone will be saving!

We have yet to see our first real heating bill, but after the weather we’ve had since Thanksgiving, I think we’ll be finding out real soon what our realities will be this winter. They say you save 1 to 3% on your heating bill for every degree you turn your thermostat down, depending on who you listen to. Well, we’re running ours on 65.

At the beginning of the cold season, I complained when we had it on 68 because I had a sore throat when I woke up in the morning. Obviously my body has somehow adjusted because I no longer have that problem, and the thermostat is set even lower. I still am not wearing long johns during the day, though I have been known to wear two shirts. Also, it is warmer in the basement than it is upstairs so we spend a bit more time down there.

But this is what you’re not going to believe. Our thermostat is set on 62, and yet Ben refuses to wear anything on his feet. If I put socks and shoes on him, he takes them off. I cannot figure out why. His feet aren’t cold, though, so I am trying not to worry. We do make sure he wears socks to bed, and usually he still has them on when he wakes up in the morning.

I know his socks seem to be getting a bit small, and I need to buy him some new ones. But I can’t imagine that that would be why he takes them off all of the time. I dress him in long sleeve shirts and his wool pants – perhaps it’s that he is more active than I am that he stays warm. I seem to be warmest when I’m sitting on the couch with my knitting on my lap…something about having the couch behind me helps me stay warm. Ben spends very little time sitting on the couch, if you know what two-year-olds are like.

So I will be interested to see what our heating bills are like this winter. If, in fact, they are a mere 6% higher than last year and we manage to save 6% by turning down the thermostate 3 degrees, our highest bill may top out around $140. We had just one over $100 last year. The previous year, we had two over $100 but they were both under $110. We shall see.

It’s supposed to warm up into the 40’s this weekend, after two weeks of freezing temperatures and snow that had not had any opportunities to melt. I know it’s winter and that it’s silly of me to wish it would warm up so the snow would melt, but I wish that just the same. For now, here is a picture I took from our front door this morning.

We finished another beer tour at Old Chicago’s this weekend. Steve finished one before he met me, and we finished our first one together right after we got married. Completing a beer tour means you have drank 110 different beers from around the world. As a reward, we get to have our names on the Wall of Foam at the restaurant where we finished the tour.

Steve finished his tour with Celebrator Dopplebock from Germany. I finished with one of the ones in the current mini-tour of Christmas beers. I really can’t tell you what Steve’s favorite beer is, but mine would have to be Boulevard Pale Ale (on tap) and New Belgium Sunshine Wheat (in the bottle). Not that it matters…

Here is a picture of us drinking our last beers on the tour.

Cheers!

We drove to Oklahoma the day before Thanksgiving and returned Sunday afternoon. Here are some pictures and highlights from our trip.

Grandma Heinrich, Traci, Ben and Dad
Ben thought he was big stuff sitting on a chair like everyone else.

Traci and Ben at the piano
Ben loved playing the piano. The funny thing was, he would start out banging along with anyone who played the piano, but then he began to realize that what they were playing and made sense and what he was doing didn’t so he would stop.

At Traci and Lou’s wedding rehearsal dinner last year, Ben discovered the stairs and wore three people out while they “spotted” him as he went up and down. He did the same thing with this swing at Grandma’s. Steve swung him on it, Dad swung him on it, and Aunt Patti swung him on it. After an hour of swinging, there were still big tears when the swinging stopped.

But then there was a dog that didn’t mind being ridden like a horse…

Time for more music. I’m telling you, he was playing the flyswatter like Elvis played the guitar. It was hilarious! He just walked around the living room making music with his guitar. Now, we know he’s seen people play the guitar, but he hasn’t seen anyone walk around and play the guitar like Elvis that we know of. I swear, the kid’s got music in him!

Matthew, Ben and Aunt Phyllis
Matthew is four, and Ben spent the entire evening following him around, doing everything that he did. Ben now makes truck noises when he drives trucks around. There was a shrieking contest at one point when Abby got upset that something didn’t work right and Ben thought her grump was something he should mimic. But everything that Matthew did, Ben was sure to do. Think of the things that child would be doing if he had an older brother!

Mom and Ben
Finally, Sunday morning, mom set up dominoes and then would knock them over, to Ben’s great delight. Perhaps we’ll have to get a set for him for Christmas so we can repeat the trick here at home!

I finished Grandma’s quilt and gave it to her for her birthday while we were in Oklahoma.

I tried very hard to finish the other quilt before we left as well, but the tension on my machine went haywire so I had to take my machine in to be serviced.

Grandma liked here quilt, though. They keep it pretty warm in her assisted living center, so I don’t know how much she’ll use it. She’ll get compliments on it, though, which I’m sure she will enjoy.

Here she is with her pretty quilt.

Front

Back

Ben was a pumpkin for Thanksgiving. Last year I dressed him up as a bumblebee – he was the cutest thing! – but Steve has not let me forget what I did to “poor Ben.” This year, I swore I was going to make Steve pick out the costume, but I ended up finding this at Once Upon a Child, a gently used children’s clothing and toy store.

And for the record, here he was last year.