The one about amazing people and our not-so-amazing tree.

So remember when I used to have some sort of crazy blog?
And I actually wrote in it?
Yeah.
Sorry about that folks.
I was busy stuffing my face and sleeping.
Because I am on vacation.

I have now been off of school for a week.
And, you know what?
I think I could do this stay-at-home-wife thing.
Except the whole health insurance
and retirement
and paycheck
and recess duty in the bitter Kansas wind
and grading my life away on Sunday afternoons
are kind of nice.

I have already taken down all of our Christmas decorations.
And, by all, I mean about 4 of them.
Including the tree that was ransacked by our crazy cat.
Anybody have some ideas about how to stop fat cats from destroying Christmas trees?
I asked Dave (thinking that he was some sort of crazy animal expert)
and his reply was nothing short of giving Sarah McLachlan and her ASPCA friends a heart attack.

You're welcome.

Anyways.

Our tree looked extra special this year.

Not because all of the ornaments were on the top 

or chased under our couch.

But, because we got some extra special ones.

I already showed you this one that my coworker gave me.

But then, her mother (and house seller extraordinaire) gave us this one.

And then, remember back in October when I mentioned some college acquaintances that lost their baby?

Yeah, well.  

They are no longer acquaintances.

They are dear friends.

Whom I have a bond with that I don't have with many other people.

N has an amazing heart.

And I am disappointed that I didn't know her well in college.

And I am even more disappointed that we know each other now

because of Maggie and Violet.

She sent two things for us to remember Maggie.

Of course, my National Geographic-photography skills were not up to par when I was doing my photo shoot.  Instead, I got blurry craziness.  (Does it have something to do with me not wearing my contacts or glasses while taking the pictures?)

The other item was a beautiful necklace.

(I am not even going to make you suffer through my photos of that one. It was pathetic.)

It was a horseshoe for good luck

for a new year.

(Not a Colts necklace like Dave originally thought).

She got it from this talented lady (who also has an etsy shop) and it is beautiful.

I have already gotten a ton of compliments on it.

Thank you, N.

(And, I'm glad Georgia is enjoying the butterfly ornament.)

Finally, for Christmas, my parents internet-searched the heck out of the googs and found this.

It's a freaking red-tailed-hawk ornament!

How in the world they found that, I still have no idea.

I love it.

This should show you how thoughtful and amazing my parental units are.

Thanks, ma and pa.

And if Kitty destroys any of these ornaments she will be the next star on Sarah's videos.