Oh British tree...

We had a very Christmasy weekend. On Friday, we watched A Muppet Christmas Carol. I love that movie. I love it so much that I might post about it, because that will doubtless be of interest to the handful of people who read this blog for the Zelazny commentary and the Legion of Super Heroes episode reviews. Lily requested A Christmas Carol because she knew it had ghosts in it. We're raising one weird kid.

I like the Muppets work because they feel real, and they feel real because they're interacting with people. Michael Caine takes the whole thing completely seriously, with none of the winking and nodding you might expect. That must have been a challenging role, but because he believes, so do we.

It didn't hurt that the soundtrack is characteristically great. Marley and Marley remains a favorite of mine to this day.

On Saturday, as part of a bribe to ensure her good behavior for the day, Jen was letting Lily eat some of the Hanukkah gelt that someone had given her. (That's uncharacteristic for Jen. I'm usually the one who feeds her candy for breakfast.) I helped her open the bag and while I was fussing with it, I asked her if she knew what Hanukkah was.

Lily: I think it's a holiday celebrated by British people.
Me: It's a holiday celebrated by Jewish people. (pause) Though I suppose there are some Jewish people who are also British. It's not like they're mutually exclusive.
Lily: Is my candy ready yet?

On Saturday morning we watched some forgettable Christmas movies and got dressed for our annual visit with Santa at my grandmother's center. We hit a rough spot here.  Lily wanted to wear her white shoes, but they're summer shoes, so it would be too cold to wear them, even on relatively mild day.

Lily: (Whining) Why can't I wear the white shoes?
Me: Because it's after Labor Day. Put on the goddamn princess shoes.

The visit with Santa was pretty decent. It's held for the families of the men and women at the senior center, and I think the little old ladies have a contest to see who has the cutest great-grandchildren. My Grammy wins every year, no doubt. Lily enjoyed playing with her cousins more than meeting Santa, but that's fine. We got the picture of the three girls with Grammy and that's what matters.

Then it was off to get our Christmas tree. While we were walking in the field, Lily gasped and pointed and said, "A British tree!"

and I had to admit, it did look a little like a Menorah.

We found our tree, cut it down and took it home. Lily really enjoys hanging the ornaments, and that's more than fine with me, because that's really an aspect of the whole thing that I just don't enjoy. (I know, hanging the ornaments is pretty much all you do with a Christmas tree.)

We didn't get a huge tree, but the way it's positioned on the stand just makes it look gigantic.

This is the best shot I got of it, even though it's not all the way decorated. (We eventually straightened it out, too.) We hadn't yet added our tree topper. We use a stuffed rabbit dressed like an angel for some reason. I forget how that tradition started. We threaded some popcorn at Lily's request, which means it's even more likely that our bird is going to attack the tree.

Lily enjoyed helping and deciding where each ornament should go. She also enjoyed hearing the story behind some of them, "This is from mommy and daddy's first Christmas" or "I had this Miss Piggy since I your age." I have a talking ornament from my mom and brother in Florida and Lily insisted that one go right up front, "Daddy loves that one. It's from his mom!" I think this is going to be a good Christmas.