High Five for Friday (12.5.14)

1. The process of sending out our annual Christmas card - taking, editing, and selecting the picture; choosing, personalizing, and ordering the card; writing and printing the Christmas letter; ordering return address labels; updating my address book and hand-addressing all of the envelopes; and finally, stuffing, sealing, and stickering/stamping the envelopes - is both time-consuming and costly. I love the tradition though, so every November I find the time and save the money and start the ball rolling with the goal of finishing the majority of my cards by December 10th. I'm pleased to report that as of today - December 5th - this annual project is nearly complete. Whoo hoo!

2. On a related note, I'm grateful I asked Will to skim through my letter (nothing like a second-grade proofreader, right?) before I starting printing copies…if I hadn't done so I might have missed the secret cat message Tux tried to insert into one of my paragraphs.

3. Christmas movie season has arrived! Every year I watch Love Actually by myself as well as Bad Santa and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation with Tom. The kids and I love Elf, The Santa Clause, The Polar Express, and perhaps above all others, Home Alone, which we watched last night for the fourth or fifth time this year. After we finished the movie, eight-year-old Will surprised us with his best impersonation of eight-year-old Kevin McAlister.

4. On Saturday morning, Tom and his dad mounted our television on the living room wall. At one point they asked for helpers, and much to my surprise, my little Hallie-bee stepped up to the plate. I could barely contain my pride as I watched her learn how to use a tape measure, wield a screwdriver, and buck gender stereotypes.

Oh, and Tux learned how to use a level.

5. Happiness Highlights:

My little pilgrim, keeping a watchful eye on our
Thanksgiving pecan pie. Yes, she watches pies bake.

The cutest catnap ever?

How is possible to fall asleep with the overhead
lights on and a paperback book resting on your face?

Nope, this is the cutest catnap ever. And yes,
that's a boy cat wearing a pink, sequined tutu.

Our elf - Chris - arrived this week!

Happy Friday, friends!

Linking up with High Five for Friday!