Rite of passage

       In this family you need to go through a rite of passage to become a full fledged member.  Many primitive tribes require their young to go on dream experiences into the wilderness and if they survive they are accepted as brave and worthy and move on in tribal stature.

      In this family we have a similar rite.  PH is a can-do kind of guy.  Most people think he's a bit insane about this thing but somehow he survives each time, and thus far, so has the initiate.  Our rite requires the initiate to hold something onto the top of the car with what PH considers sufficient ropeage.   One time, I swear to you, we tied a full length couch onto the top of the car with ONE rope tied in a bow.  I was told to hang onto the rope and we headed for the highway to drive 70 miles away at 70 miles an hour. 

      Another time it was a four foot by four foot wooden sandbox for the kids. Again, tied to the top of the car with one rope.  Our daughter's college roommate still begins to shake and sweat when she recalls the trip with her king sized mattress tied to the top of our mid-size car....again with one rope. PH's attitude is "Oh, pshaw...of course we can do it!"  And out comes the rope.  

 

  Today it was Elizabeth's turn.  The Christmas tree was tied to the top of the car, one piece of twine threaded through the windows twice and she was told to "hang on!"  You can see what she thought of this.  And yes, we made it. Somehow, we always do.

 At the Christmas tree farm we were prepared to go hunt one down for ourselves but as we got there the tractor pulled up with a load of trees they had just cut ten minutes ago.  One of them was the type we wanted so we were saved muddy boots and knees.   It was drilled and trussed and, well...see above.  Turned out to be a baby tree, though.  We've never had a tree this small.  There are a lot of things we are getting used to with this house.  Going from ten foot ceilings to normal ceilings is one of them.

 We spent the afternoon decorating the tree, unpacking boxes and we even decorated the fort.  Elizabeth strung wooden candy canes, PH tacked them up inside.  I found a string of red lights I never use (and wonder why I bought them) around the entrance to the fort.  They were in girly heaven.  Adelaide made a plate of cheese and cracker snacks for everyone to nibble.

 A couple of days ago I made a batch of the chocolateyest, densest, richest, chocolate ice cream you've ever had.  And to make it even better I chopped up ten small peanut butter cups and mixed them in.  The girls wanted to taste test. Just before bed, of course.  Let's feed them chocolate and sugar!  Well.  They couldn't dig that ice cream out of the carton fast enough.  I asked how often they are allowed to eat out of the carton.  Elizabeth held up her hand to form a "zero."  I asked if it was good.  Elizabeth said, "there aren't words."  Adelaide just kept moaning, "can you believe this?" 

I guess it's good!