Turkey and Christmas

Not the kind of Turkey that usually goes with Christmas, but the country. Brett is there right now for work for a week. Hi Brett! Look what we did tonight.
Most of you, especially those of you in the NW will look at this lame and poorly taken photo of a too small, non-symmetrical balsam fir tree and wonder why I am acting at all excited about it. But first you should know that the going rate for a Christmas tree in Manhattan is about $10 a foot. We have been watching people carry around on the subway these 2 feet high Charlie Brown type trees for the past week or so. It is really quite funny. They look all dried out, the needles are falling off and they are, in a word, pathetic. Well, our neighbor happened to discover a little market selling trees for $25, any size and their tree didn't look too bad. So we decided to go for it. And yes, we brought it home on the subway.
The other significant thing you should know about this story is that ummmm, we don't have any spare square foot in our apartment. And I am truly not exaggerating. This little nook where the Christmas tree now resides has been a pile of stuff we don't exactly know what to do with for 7 months now. Call it nesting or the blissful emergence into my 2nd trimester, but the past couple days I have been tackling the pile--took a taxi full of things to Goodwill, dumped some things in the basement (ie garbage), put ads on craigslist. And now? We actually have space for a tree. The table is to make it look bigger and keep it out of naughty dog range, since lately he is getting into things and eating them up. His poop hasn't been normal color for weeks since he keeps eating crayons. And we have to censor what we put in the recycle bag because it usually is shredded all over the rug. He is usually more interested in Christmas presents than the actual tree, and one year managed to open several all by himself. We are feeling very proud of our little "Christmas nook" and plan to finish the ornaments tomorrow after the Gingerbread House making party we are hosting here with some friends. Oh and guess what? It is snowing today, our favorite doorman is back after being ill for a week and they are decorating the lobby all festive. We also had Maya's first ballet class today and went to an amazing circus with a group of friends--it was fantastic. I want to go again and I'm not even a kid. They actually had a poodle dressed in a satin dress walking a huge cat all the way around the ring on it's hind legs (the poodle, not the cat). Maybe this is all trying to find solace for not getting to go to Turkey--Brett sounds like he is doing great--nice hotel and beautiful city, and it sounds like the diving is going well. We miss him, but I am so excited he gets to work in such a locale...and really we are pretty lucky, he hasn't traveled without us all year except for the week he was in Ft. Lauderdale ahead of us. Nighty night.