I broke down and bought a mini real Christmas tree at Whole Foods. We have it on the mantle where hopefully Rex cannot get to it. It has a battery-powered LED light string, so there's no point of contact for Rex unless he moves and climbs a chair. I threw all of my style preferences to the wind and just hung the ornaments that have most meaning for us: one-of-a-kind glass globes blown by our friend Yuri, a pomegranate from Armenia, a ballet slipper from Bulgaria, a German ornament, an ornament Rex made at school, a picture ornament of our first photo with Rex, and a bunch more. The stockings are special, too: we purchased the little one for Emilia in Bulgaria and Rex's was custom-made after we won it in an adoption auction supporting another family. I'm not sure about keeping the wreath up. It might just be too much.
This afternoon, I baked our first batch of Christmas cookies from a new recipe. Nothing fancy, but yummy. The only thing I will do differently when I make these again is to roll sanding sugar into the dough log prior to cutting and baking for an even prettier look.
And, the incredible cuteness of Christmas pajamas has arrived. I could just eat these babies up.
P.S. Thanks to those of you who have inquired about the outcome of Rex's medical testing on November 18. All went well at the hospital and Rex was an incredible trooper. We were relieved and thankful when all results came back as normal and the doctors' suspicions were proven to be wrong. Among other things, we now know that Rex has perfect hearing through the brain stem, dispelling his Armenian diagnosis of severe hearing loss once and for all.
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