A new Christmas tree

When we moved out of our last house, we left our old Christmas tree behind. We're in the process of trying to figure out the dimensions and costs of a new one right now. A couple lessons I have learned from this experience:

1. Artificial Christmas trees are expensive. It is hard to find a prelit tree for less than $150.
2. When measuring the height of the room, do not let your 3 year old hold one end of the measuring tape while you're on the ladder holding the other end. She's just going to run with the tape.
3. Take into account you tree topper. Our ceiling is 8'8" high, but we will need to get a 7'6" tree. Why? Because our Santa Clause tree topper is approximately 1' tall and we already shove enough of the tree up his orfices.

Just One Piece

The girls went to what is known as "Trunk-or-Treat". A large church puts it on every year. It basically is walking around the church parking lot trick-or-treating at people's cars. The girls got a lot of candy.

When they got home, Ellie was asleep. I carried her from the van up to her bed. We took the other two down to the basement. Kristin told them they could have "just one piece". First, she lied. They had multiple pieces. The worst of all was Shannon. Kristin gave her one of those triple-long tootsie rools. Shannon ate it and was literally zipping accross the room from one side to the other. It took two hours to calm her down for bed.

Let Me Introduce Myself

My name is Bob. I live in a great town and have a wonderful family. I have been married to my wife, Kristin, for 8 years and we have 3 beautiful daughters. Our oldest, Lauren, is five years old, has Autism, and very curious about life. Our middle child, Ellie, is a princess and a girly-girl. Our youngest, Shannon, looks like a minature version of me.

Our lives are a little different than other families. I work nights while Kristin works days. I am home with the girls during the day, which can be fun at times and stressful at other times.

Kristin and I are Christians. We plan on raising our kids to love Christ, too. (Ultimately, it is their choice and not something we can force them to do.) Going to church is hard at times, though, due to Lauren's Autism. We have been at churches that are very accepting of it and we have been at others that expect her to be able to do everthing the regularly functions kids do, including sitting still and being quiet during an church service geared towards adults. We have also been told Autism doesn't exist and it is a result of her unrepented sins. Finding a church is difficult, and we are still looking.