The Geek Tree has spawned. With my 18-month-old son Luke obsessed with putting almost everything he finds in his mouth, we decided that hanging up my various mini (and easily swallowed) ornaments wasn't a good idea. At the same time, my parents discovered my old Christmas tree from high school, a 18" tree that I used to setup in my room.

A string of white lights later, and the Spawn of the Geek Tree was born.

Like the Geek Tree, the mini-Geek Tree is decorated with a variety of science fiction and comic book ornaments (no fantasy ones though -- I didn't have any small enough for this tree; even the hobbits are out of scale). It's decorated with Hallmark's miniature Star Trek ornaments (the Enterprise-E, Defiant and Voyager) as well as their Star Wars collection (Imperial AT-AT, TIE Fighter and X-Wing).

It's the 23rd of December, which is a date my four-year-old is having a hard time grasping. She's mentally willing for Christmas to be here tomorrow and the whole "Christmas Eve" thing just isn't making sense to her. But she can tolerate Christmas Eve ... it's the Day before the Eve that's really getting to her.

Visions of sugar plums (and the chocolate covered pretzels she just made with her mom) are most definitely dancing in her head, and she's having a hard time grasping why we need to clean the house. And why we can't just flip the time switch and have it be Christmas tomorrow.

She's getting there. She successfully cleaned up her room, and helped me find all the toys downstairs and put them away, earning her a little quality time playing Nintendogs on the DS. But I know this is only a reprieve -- an another hour or two, we'll have another conversation about Christmas ... and how Christmas Eve should really count as Christmas proper...