We've got a tree!!! Wheeee!!!

All right. If you've been following the story of the errant van Schaik
Muirs and their pre-Christmas saga, you know that for the
first time ever we went out to get a tree yesterday and came
home empty handed. What no tree? That's right.

Sam with the chosen tree

Today -- we didn't hear from Sunny who had our number
in case the Fraser fir came in. On the way to his display
we wandered off the beaten track and low and behold
saw the perfect tree, chose it, had it bagged, stuffed in the
car, and now we have Christmas.

The men at the lot carry the tree while Steven directs them to
the car, and Sam looks on

True -- the tree is still on the back porch, and won't come
in until tomorrow. True I'll have to relinquish full control
of my studio so we can decorate and have Christmas dinner.
Plus we didn't get the front door wreathe yet. But you
know what we have a lovely red cherry wreathe on the door
year round, which will stand in until we pick one up tomorrow.

In the middle of all of this a package arrived from my dear
friend Paula in Nova Scotia -- blueberry scones. When I
saw who the box was from I laughed out loud, because
I knew right away it was the scones. Every summer we
eat ourselves up about three sizes on Paula's scones, which
are always there when we stop in for a tea or coffee on the
way to or from the beach. She felt sorry for us missing
getting out to Nova Scotia, and was right to suspect that
we sorely missed her scones. As soon as Sam got home
from work today he wolfed down a few, and some of the
fabulous fudge she sent. What a darling.

The farmhouse
watercolour
16 x 20 inches

I'm showing you a watercolour from my watercolour
days. I like the painting because it looks like the
farmhouse near Seneca College where we go to
pick our pumpkins every year. I did it in a class
with the renowned Americo del Col and it is more
like his style than mine. The people in my
painting group would wonder where the turquoise
is. In Americo's class we worked a lot with burnt
sienna and ultramarine blue.

Have a putting-the-pieces-of-your-holiday-together day.