Hale helped Grandma Patsy decorate her sweet little tree.
All the good spots are around the back.
Hale has been drawing Christmas trees by the dozens, each a variation on a theme.
We are collaborating on drawing them, sometimes for a few hours at a time.
(There are a lot of things you can say about what we do for a living, but I LOVE that we often have some real time with Hale, even jammed higgledy-piggledy among all kinds of other craziness as it is.
We have it good, here at Casa NonFiction.
Daddy is there cinnamon in this hot chocolate?!
This boy takes his ordolent (aka, ornament*) hanging seriously.
*(note that Hale doesn't say ordolent; it's an old Squire Family gag mispronunciation.)
Lights up in that sea urchin shell.
Family portrait.
(Yeah, that's Hale's Spider-Man cape--a Gramma Char original--as a tree skirt. Fitting.)
"Scratch your bum on the tree, Polar Bear, scratch your bum on the tree."
"Mommy, I LOOOOVE it."
"Each shining light, each silver bell,
No other light spreads cheer so well."
Tonight we also went for a Lantern Walk with Hale's preschool. They made awesome lanterns by gooping colored paper onto balloons, and we all got one and hung them from sticks with LED candles inside, and we traipsed about the neighborhood on the Longest Night of the Year.
