Fightin' Irish Christmas Tree

Yesterday, we took off in the morning from our hotel in Iowa City and stopped--as planned--to have lunch in South Bend with our youngest son.  We picked him up at the Notre Dame campus and took him out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings, a favorite haunt of his.  Afterward, we went to Wal-Mart to stock him up on Gatorade and protein bars and then dropped him off at his dorm.  It was a quick visit, and we'll see him again in just a few short weeks when he comes home for his Christmas break--but it was so wonderful to see our baby!

Before we got back on the road, we stopped in at Notre Dame's awesome Hammes Bookstore, because I'd seen something in their catalog that I wanted to get for my hubby for Christmas and thought it would be a good idea to pick it up and save on the shipping charges.  In the foyer of the bookstore, we were greeted by this lovely sight:

Isn't this Fightin' Irish Christmas Tree simply gorgeous?  I'm not normally a fan of "theme" trees, but I'll make an exception for this one!  (Click on the photo if you'd like to enlarge it...go ahead, click on it.  Trust me, it's totally worth it.)

Seeing the bookstore all decked out for Christmas made me even more anxious to decorate my own house.  Usually, it's all done by now, but we've been away from home since November 17, when we began our westward road trip out to Indiana for the ND v. Wake Forest game...which turned into a road trip all the way out to Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with our beloved grandbabies.  We departed from Colorado Springs on Monday morning and made it to Buffalo last night; today, we only have about 9 more hours of driving to go before we're home sweet home again.

So this is what I'll be singing just as soon as I've had my morning coffee tomorrow: "Deck the halls with bows of holly, Fa la la la la, la la la la..."