A Charlie Brown Christmas Tree -

You can't really see it from this angle, but our sad little tree leans.  A LOT.  When we lived in the North...and had real trees...they always seemed to lean too.  I really don't understand it.  Over the years we have tried every tree stand known to man...from our very first Christmas tree when we lived in Colorado and I cut down a tree.  Myself.  And dragged it to the house.  And then realized we didn't have (and couldn't even afford!) a stand, so I propped my little tree in a pot of water and leaned it against a wall....to the gorgeous trees we've bought over the years and the expensive stands...they always seem to end up leaning.  Sometimes they would start out straight and a curious dog or cat would "investigate" and cause the tree to lean.  Sometimes, we could never really figure out WHY it was leaning.  The moral of this long, boring story?  We've never had a problem with leaning trees with the fabulous, pre-lit, fake artificial tree.  Which also does not drop needles.  Just saying!

Paige was invited to attend a performance of The Nutcracker this morning by another friend from Ballet. She had a great time watching for a change, and ran into one of her friends from the Florida Ballet, which was nice!  I spent a lovely morning ALL ALONE.  Running errands, etc.  Clay has had several quizzes and tests in various subjects this week.  In my opinion, he wasn't doing enough studying and when I would ask him, he would just tell me he "was ready".   Naturally, that wasn't good enough for me and I admit to a bit of motherly nagging.  He had a French quiz today.  Long time readers may remember that French was his nemesis last year, so I was very concerned.  I expressed this NORMAL, TYPICAL concern in my usual way:  I nagged him the entire way to school this morning.  "Clay, you just need to start putting more effort in.  You're never going to get into a good college with this type of attitude"  Blah Blah Blah.  So, when I picked him up from school this afternoon I noticed a bit of a smirk on his face.  And a very smug expression.  He informed me as he got into the car that he got a 106 on his French quiz.  When I congratulated him, he muttered under his breath, "I told you I knew it."  He had a pop-quiz in Honors English today and he got a 94 on that.  His AP Human Geography quiz earlier this week?  A 90.   WOOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!  Obviously, my nagging is working and I should definitely keep it up.  Right?