Isaac and Abigail have been pretty varied in what they want for Christmas and how they ask for it.  One year when Isaac was much younger, he asked for batteries and a peach.  I guess we hadn’t replaced the batteries in his noisy baby toys soon enough to suit him.  That explains the batteries but I don’t know where he got the idea for the peach.  Anyhow, I still smile when I think about how simple his wants were back then.  Gosh, one year he asked for bottled water.  His tastes have gotten a little more sophisticated but he really only wants one thing this year…a pellet gun.  Now, he doesn’t want a Red Rider or anything like that.  In fact tonight, he quoted to me, “Dad, I think that pellet gun we saw at Gander Mountain (an awesome outdoor-sports store) shot pellets at 1600 feet per second.”  That’s no toy really at that point but still, he only wanted that one thing.  Isaac has never been much on writing stuff down so I think he had to hope that his Christmas wish-list made it through the ether to the North Pole.

Abigail's letter to Santa

Abigail, on the other hand, is very expressive in her writing, and, well, everything really.  So a couple of years ago she wanted an art easel which she loves to use.  Recently she has taken to writing notes to Emily and me on the dry-erase part so it is pretty common for us to see a very detailed message or a clever note in her hand-writing on the board.  A few weeks ago we noticed an updated message and I have to tell you, I laughed out loud and still get  huge smile on my face when I look at the picture.  You see, Seph, our little orange kitten is a full sized cat now but he still likes to bite a little and can be quite the terror.  I don’t think Seph was actually chewing on Abigail when she wrote the note to Santa, but I absolutely love her creativity.  The best part is, after all of the details of the note, at the bottom she adds all that she really wants for Christmas – a chess set of her own.  We probably have 5 others laying around but she wants a nice one that is just hers.  I suspect Santa will help her out on her wish.  And besides my pride in her excellent writing, I am so glad that she, like her brother, has such simple Christmas wishes.  Merry Christmas kids and my blog friends.  I hope your Christmas is a simple one heaped full of awesome and love.

Edit:  It turns out that Santa just passed through and he left this note:

Santa's letter to Abigail

We loaded up the kids in the van and headed to the Capitol Market in Charleston, one of WV’s best farmer’s markets.  This time of year, the sell only one thing…Christmas trees!  We wandered through hundreds of trees looking for the cheapest price….erm..I mean the best shaped tree.  About 2/3 of the way down the market, we happened upon the cheapest…erm…best shaped…trees.  We talked to the folks working there and they told us where their trees were grown (locally) and their price was good so we picked out a tree.

The guy working there ran our tree through the wrapping machine and offered to run Isaac through as well.  I told him I would pay him $10 extra to run both kids through but we measured and his machine would not quite handle their size.  I bet for $20 he would have made it work.

Anyhow, we tied the tree atop the van and proceeded to cruise over all of the hills and curves back to the house.  Neither of us wanted to look back fearing we’d see our tree rolling down the hill towards the next car in line.

We made it home and I manhandled the tree into the house and set it into the new tree stand we bought.  The kids cut the tree-wrap into hundreds of tiny pieces that were left strewn about the house.  Emily cut the last bit of the wrap as the kids and I cowered in fear of the tree’s opening.

We put lights on the tree and, of course, the kids started to fight.  The good news is, they seemed to fight in rhythm with the Christmas carols we had playing so it felt like Christmas indeed!

So far, allergies have not been a factor and I have not yet keeled over dead.  I am not any better, but I am not much worse either!

So, do you set up a tree?  Live or artificial?