While Lisa was taking a nap this afternoon, I went about finding ways to entertain Mathias. We ended up in front of the Christmas tree, with me holding him closely enough to it that he could grab branches with both of his hands. Continuously playing with the needles and staring at the ornaments, he appeared completely fascinated it, making me wonder how he’ll approach next year’s version when he has a better understanding of the fact that, uh, there’s a tree in the house for some reason.
Of course, the first time I shifted my attention even slightly he managed to pull a branch into his mouth, but that issue was rectified quickly.

We spent some extra money and got a Balsam Fir this year. It’s a gorgeous tree with soft needles and a very pleasant smell. At 7 1/2 feet, it has just two inches of clearance in our sunroom.

$75 didn’t just buy us a tree. It bought us the use of a 10×10 foot plot of land that’s been nurturing it since I was a junior in college almost a decade ago. It bought us the time spent in a nursery, and associated care, before being planted in that plot as a seedling. It may have bought us fertilizer, or maybe the use of irrigation equipment. It bought us the labor to cut it down, and the transportation down from Hinckley. And, finally, it bought us the labor to give it a fresh cut and wrap it up for car transport.

$75. I almost feel like we got away with something.

Saturday evening in Madison. I’m kind of losing track of time; I had to look up the day to make sure I knew what day it was. One day sick, two on holiday, and now the weekend. I tend to start losing track of what day it is on whatever day three away from work may be, so at least I’m consistent.

I’m still kind of sick. Whatever I had on Wednesday has slowly transformed itself to a slow, hacking cough. Argh.

Thanksgiving in Two Rivers was good. We’d planned on driving across Wisconsin Wednesday evening, but between me being sick, the weather and last-minute funeral preparations, we didn’t do the drive until Thanksgiving proper. We were out of the metro early enough that we weren’t able to listen to Turkey Confidential–unfortunate, as it was becoming a tradition of sorts–but instead got in some audiobook listening in and caught the first half of the Packer game.

My parents’ first reaction to Mathias was surprise at how much he’d grown, followed by about 24 hours of continuous fawning. At one point Mathias spent probably 45 minutes suspended on a comforter between my dad’s legs, apparently loving it. Less than a day later Mathias was in a shopping cart at Wal-Mart pushed by a very proud grandfather, a grandfather already completely intent on spoiling his grandson.

In other words, the visit with my parents went well.

Mainly due to me being a) sick, and b) horrible at communication in general, we were barely able to link up with Ben and Beth while in Two Rivers. We did get to hang out for a few hours, though, sitting in our hotel room al