Decking the halls. . .

Our tree is up! YAY! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!

So I am one of the people who still think that decorating before Thanksgiving is nuts. I think that part of what makes Christmas so wonderful and special is that it is just once a year. And it does not last from October to January! I love having my beautiful pre-lit tree up, but I would not appreciate it as much if it were up for more than a few weeks. Now once the kitchen is cleaned up from Thanksgiving dinner, bring on the tinsel! But I do not want to cheapen the most wonderful time of the year by making it last longer than it is supposed to.

Now, off my soapbox. . .

We are not going to decorate our new house because frankly, the nomadic, unsettled, boxes in every room thing is working for us. Ha! We don't have room for anything, much less a tree. Plus, I was raised by a serious Southern family who believes that if you have even one decoration up at 12:01 AM on New Year's, you will have bad luck for the whole year. And with the whole moving in thing and David coming home, I do not need the added stress, know what I mean?? Nor do I want to risk bad luck!!

So we are sticking with May's tree. After Momma and Daddy sacrificed their Thanksgiving to help me get lots done at Ft. Stewart, within minutes of us getting home, Daddy was in the attic hauling down all the decorations. He was even in a happy mood. It was so cute, he was singing "Deck the Halls with Bough of Holly. . ." and Spencer would go, "la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la" in the proper tune! That's our Bay, always in a good mood!

The kids were out of control with excitement! They were decorating branches before Daddy could get them out of the box! We lost some glass ornaments that way, but it was so worth it to watch their joy. I gave them their new Christmas jommies to signal the start of the season. And we watched "Barbie's Christmas Carol" to help get us in the spirit.


I said before that I LOVE Christmas, and I always have. BUT it is even more fun to watch it through their eyes. And as they get older, it gets more fun. They "get it," you know? We made our rings of paper to tear one off each night. We have our advent calendars with a chocolate for every night (just like Lucas and I always had. . .). And they are both quick to tell you that Christmas is Jesus's birthday, so I think we are on the right track!

And the best part of all is that right after Christmas, we will get the present we have all been praying and hoping for, David will be HOME! So this Christmas season, we have so much to celebrate and look forward to.

So Merry Christmas! And God Bless us, every one!