This weekend we managed to finish putting up the Christmas decorations. In a perfect world, they would all e up the day after Halloween -- so that we could get full, maximum enjoyment out of them. In reality -- I'll take first weekend in December. Greg spent hours replacing some of the tiny bulbs on the light strands. It's a pre-lit tree, and if one bulb is burned out on a strand, the whole strand stays dark. It seems that every year there are more and more of these strands that need to be replaced, causing hours of tedious work. We've had this tree since our first Christmas in Alaska -- 15 years. I'm thinking this will be the last year for this tree and then we'll think about upgrading.

Lights up? Check.

Tree up? Check.

Presents wrapped? Working on it.

Presents mailed? Nope -- this week.

Pantry filled with flour, sugar, corn syrup and molasses to encourage us to bake our annual Christmas goodies? Check.