163: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's been really nice to get ready for Christmas in Second Life with Alex Thaub; this is our first Christmas together and we're going a lot further than ... well, than anyone has in real life, I bet. We increased our land holdings, stripped the land down to nothing, and started from scratch with a new log cabin and associated landscaping, all to have more fun with Christmas preparations. And we are having a lot of fun

with it, making sure we get the details the way we want them.
   Last night it was trimming the big tree in the living room and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures. I have a couple of Christmas photo shoots in mind, of a more formal nature, but I thought you might relate to us at home in comfortable clothes, decorating the tree and trying to keep the dogs out of the hot chocolate. We didn't have time to start until later in the day -- the days are shorter this time of year and the darkness kind of crept up

on us. So we decided to do the last few decorations only by the light of the tree and the fireplace, which was a nice homey feeling.
   One of the bassets, Petunia, is always curious about anything humans do, especially if it even remotely involves the potential of food, and sat on the window seat looking curiously at us throughout the process.  Tiger was prowling the grounds looking for squirrels, and the other basset, Porky -- well, if you look carefully, you can see Porky fast asleep

on the sectional, oblivious to everything. He'll take more of an interest in life later at dinnertime.