It's Christmastime!

Woo hoo! It's finally December, so now I can be outwardly Christmas-y and not hide the fact that I've been listening to Christmas music for 2 weeks now! (much to the chagrin of my loving husband who is a staunch believer in no Christmas till after Thanksgiving!)

We are ALMOST done decorating. Somehow this year, it didn't happen all in one day. It took about a week. That's what happens when you work part-time, have 4 kids in the house, and go away for Thanksgiving. But we're getting there. The only thing left is to hang the ornaments on the back-room tree. I'm so frustrated too, because I cannot find the tree skirt that I hand-made before we were married. It's not quite my style anymore, but I'm so proud of my cross-stitching, sewing and quilting skills in it. It's truly amazing that the thing is still in one piece after 13 years... crafty as I am, sewing is NOT my forte. It may be that a red throw blanket becomes the tree skirt this year. Ugh.

I had heard that my too-much-like-me, decorative and crafty friend Christy (yes, same name) had 9 Christmas trees last year... so guess who went out and bought 6 more this year! :-) I figure if she can do it, than I'm perfectly allowed to do it too. Hee hee. I now have 11 trees in this house... ooops... I mean 13. Now, before you think I'm totally nuts, 5 of those trees are the 4' tall skinny kind that are tucked out of the way and are lighted only, and 6 of those are 18" tall and sit on tables/dressers. Those ones are decked out in plastic bulbs or other simple decorations (unbreakable). So, really, we only have two big trees. All fake, yes. Sorry. Enough allergies in this family to warrant avoiding real trees. Besides the fake ones shed enough... I couldn't imagine the mess I'd make with a real one!

As for the outdoors, however... we aren't as lavish. I refuse to climb a 20 foot ladder to install lights at the roof. Kudos to those that do. After Mike's broken arm last year and my adversity to cold weather, we're just not going to do it. Mike and I are also not crazy about the blow-up decorations (although we love to see them in others' yards so please keep blowing them up!). So, we have two spotlights, a couple of lighted trees, a garland over the door, and wreaths on the windows. That's enough for me. Easy enough to take down quickly with snow on the ground. LOL

Here is Gracelynn hanging her very first Christmas tree ornament! I'd love to be able to read her mind. She just seems to go with the flow. No questions, no puzzled expressions. She must be wondering what just happened to our house, which is now jam-packed with funny trees and lights. She must look at these pictures and books of Santa Claus, and think "Who is that funny-looking man and why should we be good for him?" She must wonder what all these packaged goodies are. We now have 5 secret pal/santas among the 4 kids and are secretly dropping off packages of toys at people's houses. She's probably wondering, "What is that for? Why can't I keep that toy?" Not to mention that the poor girl's birthday is this Sunday. She's already celebrated her birthday twice with gifts and cake... once with Gran/Granddad and once with Nana/PapPap/Aunt Tracy/Uncle Tim. Oh just wait till the Chuck E Cheese party on Saturday and her birthday dinner on Sunday. That little girl is going to think that these birthdays are supposed to last a month! She's going to go into gift-withdrawal come January. Yikes!

Fortunately she seems to be catching on about Jesus. She knows her special grace prayers and knows that Jesus is always with us. She loves carrying her new Bible (from Child dedication day) to church each Sunday, even if she never has to open it. She loves going to church and seems to recall the stories better than I'd expect. So, at least the Nativity and the real reason for the season isn't lost on her. Granted, she's just almost-four, so I'm sure she doesn't truly understand Jesus. But at least she'll understand why Christmas is so important to us.

We started the Advent Calendar and the Surprise-Christmas-Book opening last night. We have a string of mittens on our wall with the gifts for the advent calendar. I'm hoping the kids realize that now we won't be receiving quite as nice gifts in each mitten. 25 days x 4 kids... can't do the $1.00 toy per kid per day anymore! But I did throw in a few nice surprises... things I would've just bought anyway. Yesterday, on Day One, they got a note about getting Charlie Brown's Christmas DVD. So, after opening the mitten, they all settled in for a bowl of popcorn and a movie before bed. You would've thought that a DVD would be exciting. Tommy was in tears. He kept asking to open ANOTHER mitten. He wanted the candy. LOL Well, considering how cheap 4 candy canes are... he won't be disappointed often. What book did we read? The Legend of the Poinsettia. Oh, how I love Tomie dePaola. My kids probably weren't as excited, but I just ADORE his sweet little illustrations. (Witch or not... Strega Nona must be in the top 5 books I love.) I keep buying more and more Christmas books... I think if I were to wrap them all, we'd have a book-a-day for about two months. LOL At least there are surprises each year when it's time to open them!

So, do we like Christmas? I do believe so. And what a month this is going to be... our babysitter is going to LOVE us. LOL