Okay, here's the real thing, with another dog photo thrown in for fun. Those two have lots of quality time snuggling on days when the high is 12.

tree, installed

Here is our sweet little tree shining bright!

Good dogs

Hugo and Suki are hunkering down for the winter - the IDEA of a walk makes them shiver.

Finding Our Tree

Our first snow of the year (7 delightful inches) on the day we tromped through a card friends' woods in search of a tree. It was magical. Witness the winter coat I bought before ever moving to MN and the snow pants I finally got on sale at the end of last season! A cold wet butt gets old.
I told Otto we were going to trim the tree and he looked at me with a shocked expression and said "Why cut it up?"
This was the first year he could really help and though one or two branches at toddler height are a sagging under the weight of their ornaments he did a fine job. Photos of that another day.

We also went to the cabin - Otto got to go into the loft (with the treacherous stair case) for the very first time BY HIMSELF. I went to check on him and he told me he wanted to be alone. Otto also enjoys me taking photos of myself. I tricked him by including him in the photo but he found me out. So now I have another shot of me snarling without him to add the levity.

We had a great Thanksgiving visiting with relatives and friends. Here are a few highlights - Otto wanted to bring his snow clothes to Thanksgiving dinner at Grandad and Bubbles' so he could play in the dusting of snow, but ended up in the birdbath instead.

Here's the darker side - it's not all giggles around here!