Guus Bosman

Yesterday morning after gymnastics we went to Home Depot to buy the tree. Like last year, we wanted a manageable size -- on that wouldn't be too dangerous if falling over -- and we found a fresh 5' tree that suited our needs.

Adrian took some branches from Home Depot ("baby boom") and Nora took random string of rope (which I secretly threw away a few hours later). After lunch we brought the tree inside, as promised, and then it was nap time. It took Leo a long time to fall sleep. I brought Nora to a birthday party in Clarendon and when I came back the boys were deep asleep.

After dinner we decorated the tree. The kids also played with the Dick Bruna nativity scene, always a favorite.

In the morning the boys were downstairs for a while... then I saw Adrian walking around with a dustpan. When I asked what happened, Leo explained that they were kicking the big blue exercise ball, it bounced off the fireplace and then hit the tree and broke one of the Christmas balls. "We waren erg geschrokken", said Leo. Other than that, no damage so far.

In our hearts we wanted a big Christmas tree, in our minds we knew that's not optimal with two-year old twins in the house.

Last year we had a small table top model that the boys couldn't reach, which was safer but not quite as nice. This year we compromised and got a medium sized tree, which is actually very nice. It was much easier to carry and set up, for one thing, and it's just as pretty.

The kids were very excited about having a tree, and on Monday night we went to Home Depot together to buy one. The electric saw there made a big impression.

Over the next few days we've been setting it up and decorating it, and we're pretty much done now. There's a good chance one or two of the decorations will break in the next few days, but that's a price worth paying. In any case I've been having repeated discussions with the boys about appropriate behavior towards the tree. "Mag je aan de boom trekken? Nee! Mag je de boom aaien? Ja."

We decided on a smaller tree this year, for two obvious reasons.

While we were putting the tree up yesterday I took a picture. In the background you can see one of the obvious reasons, unplugging the cable for the lights.

On Monday night I took Nora and the boys for a walk. I wanted to go to the barber but it was too crowded so we walked around instead and met Sasha at the Clarendon Metro.

When we were going home Nora picked up berries from behind the church. A minute or two later she started complaining that her hands hurt. It was quite painful and at home we gave her some cream. 30 minutes later it had subsided.

Tuesday night we walked on the same path again and I took a picture of the plant. We still don't know if that's the culprit but Nora won't pick those berries anymore, that's for sure. There are other plants around the berries, one might be poison ivy perhaps.

We let Leo and Adrian roam around and they made a beeline for the plants in the middle of the room. They love plants. Adrian in particular is always looking for opportunities to pick their leaves. Even when he's in my arms and we walk by a plant he'll stick out his hands in the hope to catch something.

When Nora was their age, she did the same thing. Now she is protecting the plants from her little brothers.

Yesterday we got our Christmas tree. We went to Home Depot since last year's tree from Whole Foods was too big. With the playpen and Nora's toys we have little room to spare.

It was nice to see our the old ornaments again. Nora helped decorating the tree, the boys looked at the lights with interest. We moved their playpen to the other side of the room so they have a new view now.

Those cute bunnies enjoyed our lilies.

Today we took out a big part of the ivy in our front yard. It was creeping towards the neighbors and it's always encroaching on our lawn so we decided to remove a good chunk of it.

Bruce came out when I started and he loaned me some of his tools, including a big pickaxe which was very helpful.

Last Saturday we took the car, all five of us, and went to buy flowers for on the deck.

On Sunday Sasha and Nora planted petunias. Nora enjoyed playing with the soil, transferring it from the bag to a pot and then another pot...

On Sunday we bought our Christmas tree and put the lights up, and Monday night we put the ornaments in.

This is the first year that Nora helped with the decorations. Which means there is a little spot at the bottom of the tree where she many decorations close to each other.

Another change we made compared to last year was that I brought a measurement tape to the place where they sold the trees. Last year we got an 8 foot tree -- not a good fit for our 8 foot ceilings and I had to cut off a chunk to make it fit in the living room. This year we have a 7 foot tree and that obviously worked much better.