Portrait of real life

Yesterday it was cold. We got up, got breakfast, drank tea. We bundled up and went outside. A few tiny flakes of snow were falling. We walked a block to the Christmas tree lot, and bought a Christmas tree. The Man carried it home, set it up in the back yard, brought it inside. We lit a fire, put on some Christmas carols, ate some lunch. Then we decorated the tree. Lights. Baubles. A heart decoration that was a gift from our son this year. A few things from my childhood. Some garland.

It was a day right out of a story book.

...

...

Well, not quite. The part that was skipped over was that our dishwasher died at last, after limping along for months, if not years (never again will we buy Maytag!) So before the Christmas tree shopping I went to the nearby appliance store. Didn't find anything. But we needed accurate measurements, so while I decorated the tree, The Man got out his tools, and with some amount of effort and cursing, pried the old one out of its moorings. And then betook himself to some more stores. Finally found something. Rushed about madly to find a truck that he could borrow to pick it up and take away the other one. Did the amazingly Herculean task of getting the old one out to the truck, and onto the back, off to the store, and brought the new one home and into the house (thank heavens we're on the ground floor!) There was some more swearing as we realized that we were missing one single part. The dishwasher, as of Sunday morning, is still in the middle of the kitchen floor. There are dirty dishes everywhere. (Although fewer now, because I did a load and so did The Man.) There are parts and tools scattered randomly. We had dinner from a box last night because we didn't have time to do anything else, and we ended up missing a friend's Christmas party. We all went to bed before nine.

But this morning, there's fire once again in the fireplace. The Christmas tree is up and lit. We are warm and safe and happy and looking forward to installing the dishwasher today while the playdate is here.

Life is complex, but it's pretty good, too.

Also, I should add that the heart decoration? Is scribbled over and he tells us it represents "bad guys and bad guy warriors and good guys. It's the battle for Wesnoth!" Because nothing says Christmas like bad guys on your tree.