A Jolly Happy Soul

The Bairn is a right jolly elf.  He loves absolutely everything about Christmas.  He spent all morning pretending to be Suzy Goose from Petr Horáček's Suzy Goose and the Christmas Star while I read the book over and over and over again.

We started the season at the town's Christmas parade back in November, where I had a major Canadian parenting fail (probably because I'm not Canadian; I don't know what Steve's excuse is).  I didn't dress The Bairn warmly enough for the bitter wind.  All the other little kids were dressed in snow pants.  The Bairn has snow pants, but I didn't know they were necessary in non-snow environments.  I wanted to take him and his frosty legs home after we saw our friends on our church's float, but Steve was intent on seeing Santa, who rides at the very end of the parade, so we stayed, even though The Bairn looked like this.

Last week we bought a Christmas tree and wreath.  Conveniently, the farm next door to us sells both those items at Christmastime, so we just walked down the road a short way and Steve hefted the tree up onto his shoulder and carried it home.  Steve's mom was visiting, and she took this picture of us that night.  The tree is to the left of us.  note to self: Next year take family snapshot IN FRONT of the tree.

Last night we made my traditional Christmas spritz cookies and they were an utter failure.  I blame the country of Canada for selling its butter in pound increments instead of in convenient stick form.  I did not take any photos of them, but here's a picture of my baby, who looks a lot like an elf.  This post would be better if she would let me set her down while I type this.