December 11, 2003 - 8:14 a.m.
Wow. I am so far behind in reading diaries...
The tree is half up. I put the "good" and mostly unbreakable ornaments near the top this weekend. The boys and I haven't yet gotten around to decorating the lower half with the older, wooden ones - the same ones my parents bought and painted for my sister and me 30 years ago to prevent us from damaging their "good" ones - the ones that the cat hadn't already broken ;)
I took the boys to Richmond to visit their grandparents and walk the labyrinth at River Road on Tuesday - so I was in town for the earthquake. My folks live just a little east of the Powhatan border in Midlothian. It felt like a freight train was running full tilt through the back yard. The house shook, stuff bounced around on the shelves, but nothing broke and it was over before we could decide what, if anything, we ought to do.
My Christmas shopping is nearly done. Yea! There are still 8 or 9 boxes to sort through and unpack. And I brought phase 1 of the stuff I had stored at my parents' house back. So we're heading into the home stretch, I think. Perhaps we'll be completely settled in by Christmas...
