"Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas, A LOT."

The first Nebraska snow came right before Thanksgiving this year. Molly taped a snowman on the window the night before with a "Welcome Winter" message, so we attributed the snow to her. (The next day we had her write "Welcome Money" on a lottery ticket and tape that up too, but it was not as successful.) Jake was delighted with the snow and greeted the official arrival of winter with much jumping around and enthusiastic chanting of "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" We hated to curb his excitement with the very grinchly news that 33 long days would have to be endured first, and tried to break it to him gently. But he could not be convinced. First, he and Molly produced a fleet of snowflake decorations. Next, he asked to get the tree out. We told him we needed to get ready for Thanksgiving first.

On Thanksgiving the whole Durham family joined us for a lovely dinner with a big turkey prepared by Doug. Armed with only Bon Appetit for guidance, he slathered it liberally with herb pancetta butter under the skin and tucked it in the oven with very tasty results. Along with Mary's rolls and Mom's stuffing and Carolyn's green beans and Terri's pies, we ate and ate and then relaxed in the living room  patting our bellies. Jake bounced over to me, wrapped his hands around my neck, and whispered with alarm, "NO ONE HAS BROUGHT ANY PRESENTS!" Uh-oh. This family gathering was quite reminiscent of Christmas one year ago, but we thought he had heard us when we mentioned the THIRTY-odd days part! I showed him a calendar.

In the next 24 hours Jake asked to put the tree up about 50 times. So Saturday, for the first time ever before mid-December, out came the boxes and out came the tree parts, with Jake heading up the assembly. Three minutes later, Parker and Molly peeled off to do something else, but Jake pressed on, and proceeded to complete nearly the whole thing alone using his finely-honed Lego engineering skills. I managed to persuade them to wait on the big tree decorations, but did let them get out their own mini-trees and decorate them. After everyone is put to bed, I go back upstairs and find that Jake has arranged the mini-trees next to the fireplace with a helpful note on each one like this: "Santa. Molly. Girl toy." And there are cookies on a plate.

Just 31 more days to go.