The past month has pretty much been a blur. I've shared many a late night with the garage and many a mile on the road. I've put grid wall up and I've taken grid wall down. I've fabric fastenered (I think that's a real word) until the cows came home. But now I am about done. Whew. We had a nice little quiet book run with increased traffic on our website so I guess I would consider the shopping season a relatively good success. Now, a chance to turn my thoughts to my own Christmas.
Matthew has been chomping at the bit to put up the decorations. He's my little decorating director. I love his enthusiasm about holidays. Oh to be a kid again. On Saturday Corbin climbed up the ladder to retrieve that artificial sentiment of Christmas and place it squarely in outside view. I put on my safest climbing slip ons and ventured into the realms of attic glory. I do that job because I generally know box contents and how much energy I really have to place trinkets of holiday joy. Some of the possessions didn't make the cut this year and are destined for another year in cold storage. Others made their way down to travel off with the MS drive pick up tomorrow. (I find that I sometimes tend to purchase things at the Target 75% off sale that I never really intend to use but they are such a good deal that I must get them just in the event that my life's needs change and heaven forbid I actually have to pay full price. Really I can have four times as much for the same price and then generously share my superfolous items with the MS Friends drive.)
Well anyway, Caroline was a sleeping rock star and slumbered through the whole set up--which honestly is exactly what I had hoped for. Chasing the other two muchkins is enough when there are ladders and sparkly things involved. After the pre-lit miracle was in place we set to ornamenting it in grand fashion. Apparently my Costco wired ribbon on the top left a void in Matthew's holiday cheer as he expected a star. We put on a Christmas CD and all was right with the world. Mother Nature even blessed us with a a few flurries for affect. I reminisced a little about some of the ornaments and the kids continued to place most ornaments on the same branch. Thankfully those wire branches are kid proof. We were all having a jolly time of togetherness. Matthew even commented on what a good day it was being with this family. (At his delicate age in life we are never quite sure if we will be praised as the best mom and dad or worst on the plantet--but I guess it all goes with the territory)
Then it struck--the tired, hungries, and we've had enoughs. In true form, Spencer was throwing or pushing anything he could touch. Matthew had his little ornaments he had chosen to decorate his room tree sitting on a stool and Spencer sent Matthew's miniature snow globe ornament bearing his name crashing to the floor. The little glass globe with the dropper amount of water spewed forth its glitter and that was the end of the holiday cheer. It was time for naps and lunch.
Yesterday we made little reindeer cup cakes as featured on the cup cake calendar that proudly graces the refrigerator which was purchased last holiday season at Michaels's for $1. I guess it's kind of like the Jelly of the Month club but with cupcakes. They did turn out pretty cute I have to admit.
Tonight in Family Night we are going to talk about helping others and pick a few people we can do something nice for during December. I don't have grand expectations given my crowd but I'm hoping that every little bit plants a seed. We'll keep it pretty simple and I suspect that it will mostly involve giving cookies or some such thing to the neighborhood folk and most likely Norma--a neighbor widow and the the kids favorite susbtitute grandmother. Even Spencer thinks she is the cat's meow because she has toys.
Overall, we are looking forward to a happy holiday. We've got a few family activities on the list such as Zoo Lights, Lights at Thanksgiving Point and Temple Square. We went to Festival of Trees last week and saw the gorgeously decorated trees. They are sold off for a charity fundraiser for Primary Children's Hospital and Matthew wanted to know if we could buy one. Sadly--no. The gingerbread houses were sure cute and the favorite was the "UP" house. It made me think of my dear friend Margaret who is the gingerbread house master and taught me everything I know about gingerbreadhouse building. She's spending the holidays in Hong Kong. Do they make little gingerbread pagodas or something over there? That would be cool.
Only 18 more days and let's hope that the scuddlebuts over the chocolate advent calendar are at an all time low.
