Alice shakes me awake much earlier than I need to be up. We are supposed to go buy a Christmas tree later, even though it's not December yet. Alice insists we need the tree up and decorated by the time we host Thanksgiving here and I'm trying not to think about all those people in my house plus having to string lights and sweep up tree needles.

"Babe, it's not even light out yet," I grumble, but she plunks Petey on my stomach and there's no going back to sleep after that. He ...