Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree . . .

Our little Christmas tree is, well, little. Given the size of our apartment and the fact that a regular-size tree would have to travel up to the second floor though, this one is perfect. I have had this little tree since college when Cindy sent it to me during my freshman year. Thanks, Cindy:)



And little though it may be, there is no lack of gifts underneath it. This is our pile of presents to bring home with us (in two weeks!). Sorry guys, no peeking!



The stockings hung with care. Is that how the song goes? I've been trying to remember the words to all the Christmas carols to sing with the children at school. Usually the words escape me, so we mostly sing the chorus of Jingle Bells . . . a lot! The sweet two-year-olds know it by heart.



In other news, my muffler was in pretty bad shape. The fastener rusted through - again. It and some of the exhaust pipe rusted through a few years ago in Fort Collins, too, and the whole muffler fell off while I was driving down the street! Beth, do you remember? Anyways, Matt said it sounded like a semi when I was driving down the road. In fact, he could hear me start my car from our apartment, which is on the second floor and opposite side of the building from the parking lot. So Matt sawed through some rusty pipes and clamps and detached the old muffler. He put on a shiny new one and repaired the exhaust pipe, which was just about dragging on the ground. I don't have a picture of the new muffler. Just imagine bright silver shining out from underneath the car and that new car sound.

P.S. Matt has done two more fly overs. One was a few days before Thanksgiving in Colorado Springs. He was part of a fourship that flew over the Air Force Academy for the Commandant's Challenge. He said they flew over Garden of the Gods (a place with beautiful red/orange rock formations). They even flew right around Pikes Peak. He said it was awesome! I wish I could have seen it! Matt got to do another fly over yesterday. He and five other guys flew to Tampa, Florida. They flew their threeship over the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) Championship football game, which was Virginia Tech and Boston College. They even got to sit down on the field for part of the game. The T-37s are almost out of commission so they have been requested for fly overs a lot recently. Pretty exciting stuff:)