Saturday, November 27, 2010

Tis the Season

Today is the day I've been looking forward to for months-- Christmas is officially allowed to arrive! Well, it could have come as early as Thursday evening, but we had other things on our to-do list. I can't stand Christmas before Thanksgiving (and don't even get me started on Christmas before Halloween), and I want the Christmas stuff gone no later than New Year's Day, but I LOVE my 30 days of holiday decorations and lights and the Frank Sinatra holiday station on pandora.com. I've been looking forward to that last one with particular anticipation- it makes my office feel so cheerful.

So at 8:00 this morning JP was getting down our containers of Christmas decor from the attic and I was dancing around to my Christmas mix on iTunes (my brother burned all my mom's Christmas CD's the first Christmas after JP and I got married, it was like having a piece of home in Chicago). We also came across a container with a few of Landon's old toys in the attic, so Clairebear got to play with them while I switched out all our usual decor for holiday items- and then re-organized our study shelves and closet. I was on a roll, and the Biscuit was happy.



I had part of the mantel done when Landon came in from helping JP string up the lights. He paused while walking through the living room, looked at the fireplace, and said in a soft, almost reverant voice, "the house is so beautiful mommy."



This Christmas is going to be amazing. I'm getting all teary just thinking of how much fun we're going to have. And not because of any big plans or expensive presents- we're spending Christmas Eve and morning at home with just the four of us before driving over to my parents lake house, and I'm done with my shopping and I think the present Landon is going to be most excited about are the shiny orange crocs he's getting in a bigger size for his big kid feet- but he's so excited and Claire is so smiley and I think it's just going to be a wonderful holiday.

My grandparents gave me Target gift cards to buy the kids' presents from them to put under the tree. I picked out some great things, but I've decided to give them this nativity set early.



It'll be out when they come downstairs tomorrow morning and I look forward to telling them the real story of Christmas.



This is going to be such a great month!

6 comments:

  1. I also hate Christmas before Halloween. I was in Target right around Halloween and couldn't believe that they had Christmas decorations up already! So annoyed!

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  2. We have that nativity set, too-- it CRACKS me up b/c the people and animals get involved in some very non-sacred kind of play over the course of the month. And Santa's reindeer always seem to join the scene...

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  3. you totally amaze me! not only do you work crazy hours and have two little kids- but your house is so well decorated and you are so organized! WonderMommy!!!! Claire must be the happiest baby on the planet!

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  4. your decorations are so gorgeous - how festive!!

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  5. We have that nativity too - last year was the first year I put out my 'good' set because my youngest is now old enough to know to leave it alone...so the FP set was our only displayed nativity for many years. My kids still love it.

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  6. It was a big hit today. Claire spent most of the afternoon gnawing on the baby Jesus, which seemed both fitting and wildly inappropriate at the same time. She also enjoyed a few chews on the camel. Landon was mostly concerned with which item got to be on top of the barn, preferring the sheep to be in that coveted spot. We're still working on explaining the actual Christmas story...

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