O Florida Tree

An unexpected but very pleasant side effect of losing our van is that I get to re-claim Christmas.  No longer will we be going to Utah for weeks on end.  ... We wimped out of driving across the country in our Corolla with 3 kids in the backseat. ...  So just Miciah and I are flying out for an extended weekend stay, and Christmas is saved!!!

I wish I could describe how excited I am about this.  Seriously.  Thank you, dead van.  I throw flowers on your grave.

Last night we decorated our Christmas tree.  We did a Florida theme to remind us that our biggest Christmas present to the kids already arrived:  Key West. 

While in Florida we collected a bunch of Spanish moss (and carried home a few paper wasps with it) to hang as tinsel, cause that's pretty much what it looks like in the wild: tinsel gone crazy.  In Key West we bought a Christmas ornament and they wrote on it for us:  "Thacker Family" and "Key West 2010."  And then, last night, Miciah and I hot glued some yarn to the back of shells and beach rocks to hang as ornaments.  Throw in a few white lights, large pine cones (also from Florida), and glass gold balls and viola!  A little bit of Florida in Ohio.

Shells and yarn.  Move over Martha Stewart.  Here's Miciah showing off one of the ornaments she made:

I don't know why she's puffing out her stomach like that.  Apparently that's her "I'm so proud of my work" pose.

And the Key West ornament:

Let Christmas begin!