christmas time is here.

Life has been such a blur lately that I haven't taken the time to post anything here.  So today I thought I'd tell the story of life here lately, in picture form...

Naomi had her cast removed on Dec. 3rd by an elf! :)

Rue.

Jesse & Naomi with their new glasses, Rue and the walking boot Naomi wore for two weeks.  Oh yes, and Zoe's rear end.

Naomi wanted to paint something for her new friend Reese. :)

I love how it turned out! :)

We found Rue a new crate because she had outgrown the cat crate we'd been using at first. She really likes it when we go places, because we put peanut butter into the hole in a Kong toy and toss it in her crate to keep her busy for a while. She runs right in after it.  :)

We made Christmas cookies and somehow Zoe & Rue appeared on the cookie sheet! (Marissa formed them by hand.)

Jesse holding Rue after she somehow got some frosting on her face. :)

We had a few frosty nights early this month.  When that happens here, we have to cover the warm-weather trees & bushes with sheets to protect them from frost.

We got our Christmas tree at Wal-Mart just after they'd closed the garden center, so we had to go back into the store to check out.  VERY different from any other tree-buying adventure we've had before! :) 

Our tree.  It smells so great, and this tree is lasting so much longer than the other trees we've had since moving to Arizona! :)

David called when we were decorating the tree, so it was fun telling him about the memorable ornaments that were going on the tree at a particular moment.

Marissa & Rue just chilling on the couch enjoying the ambiance.

She looks so funny sometimes while she's sleeping.

This is what I got when I tried to get a photo of both dogs sitting together.  Rue kept running towards me.

On a date to an Italian restaurant with very eclectic decor and sort of an irreverent sense of humor to it.  Hard to explain without showing you the pics, but I shouldn't post most of them here...

Have you ever been to a restaurant with a mirror beside the toilet?  I was so busy noticing the collage of images above the toilet (paint-by-numbers of dachshunds, various antique newspaper ads, and a naked lady) that I didn't see the mirror until I was on the toilet.  Rather shocking.

Rue seems to have this power to make people fall asleep.

Marissa was one of the narrators at our church Christmas play a week ago yesterday.

Marissa was in the choir again, too.  (At the bottom right corner of the monitor.)

Joshua was Joseph, Jesse was a wise man, and Naomi was a shepherd.

More puppy cuteness.  We've had her six weeks and she is now 10 weeks old (she was 4 weeks when we got her, not 6 as we had been told.)

Joshua playing with the mirror in our bathroom.

David & Marissa in the kitchen on Wednesday morning.  It's SO great to have him here for Christmas!

David, Marissa & Jesse. :)

David & Naomi at Sam's Club while we were ordering David's contact lenses for the next year. 

Another funny sleeping posture.

David thought it would be fun to climb on Matt's lap like he was a little kid.  Pretty funny! :)

More silliness. :)

And a fun comparison shot of Naomi & Rue. :)

And that brings us to today, two days before Christmas.  I'll post more later this week. :)