Ok, it's time to take down the lights

As I drove through town this evening on my way home from work at twilight, I noticed that a lot of homes still have Christmas displays up with lights on.

Really, people, it's time to take down the lights. Christmas was three weeks ago already.


Of course, even though the holidays are over, that doesn't mean we have to give up on the Christmas Spirit, which should last all year through anyway. And there are those people who enjoy Christmas so much that they have an entire room decorated in Christmas paraphernalia.

This house in the Phillippines is a tourist attraction.

Then there are those places that sell Christmas items or have Christmas fun all year long.

I guess I can't really complain. Here's a picture of my mantel. Yes, those are Father Christmases, and an Effanbee Christmas Patsy doll. :)

















And then there's this one, who stands alone by the tv:

Thursday 13

13 Things I Still Need to Do to Get Ready for Xmas

1. Make sure I have the ingredients to make gingerbread men.
2. Buy soda for family party on Sunday, 12/16.
3. Find book I plan to give to niece and finish wrapping her gift.
4. Wrap stuff to help out Santa.
5. Buy gifts for DH.
6. Clean living room.
7. Clean kitchen.
8. Put stuff in proper places.
9. Hook up new computer.
10. Organize ebay and half.com stuff in computer room (probably will wait until after the holidaze).
11. Find gifts for two white elephant gift games.
12. Finish Journal #72
13. Read library books I've had checked out since spring and keep renewing.

Xmas Survey

Survey About Christmas Habits

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper (bags
for bottles etc)

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial

3. When do you put up the tree? Normally right after Thanksgiving, or first week of December

4. When do you take the tree down? After the new year

5. Do you like eggnog? never had it


6. Favorite gift received as a child? Bruce Springsteen, Live 75-85 boxed set

7. Do you have a nativity scene? yes, but we didn't set it up this year

8. Hardest person to buy for? My nephew

9. Easiest person to buy for? my DD

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? My grandmother once sent us these horrible western-style shirts that were in style at the time (late 1980s). Let's just say they didn't fit and were the ugliest things I'd ever seen.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail by far

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? "A Christmas Story"

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? November

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Yes, and going to again this year, too.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? deviled eggs

16. White lights or colored on the tree? colored, and preferably twinkling

17. Favorite Christmas song? Merry Christmas Baby, Santa Claus is Coming to Town

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? stay HOME

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? yes

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Santa!

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Family
on X-mas Eve and santa's on X-mas morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? crowded stores and the constant commercials to buy MORE MORE MORE

23. What I love most about Christmas day? DD's face when she opens her gifts from Santa

D25 -- Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas to all my readers. I hope you are enjoying your holidays! Thanks for reading my blog!

Here's what I got from Santa:

Postsecret's book, "My Secret"
buttercream-scented Yankee Candle tea lights
Bath and Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar lotion and body wash
the movies "Underworld" and "Underworld: Evolution"
1 lb. of Jelly Bellys
2 chocolate oranges

Santa must have decided that I was a good little girl this year. DD loved her My Little Pony Crystal Castle and all the clothes she received.

D06 -- Christmas Trees

Back in the day, up until the age of six or seven, my family purchased a real tree to decorate at Christmastime. I remember quite clearly how the chosen tree would have to be propped in a corner, and we were always told, "GET AWAY FROM THERE! YOU'LL KNOCK IT OVER!!!"

I spent my time gazing at the multicolored lights from afar.

I also remember covering the tree in lots of silver tinsel. Mom hated it. She would be picking up tinsel well into the new year.

As we grew up, I suppose that live Christmas trees became more expensive. For many years, we had an artificial tree, about four feet tall. It sat in the living room bay window. On top, there was a lighted star that would blink on and off. (One year, it quit working, and my mom searched everywhere to find another star like it. She complained for days until she found one.) I do remember, however, begging my parents one year to get a real tree. I think I was either in high school or college. They agreed and it was fun to go back to the "good old days."

Now our family has a 6-ft. artificial tree. It's just easier to deal with and we don't have as much to clean up after the holidays. We reuse the tree year after year. DD will probably never know the excitement of having a live tree.

But that's perfectly all right by me. At least I won't have to yell at her constantly: "GET AWAY FROM THERE! YOU'LL KNOCK IT OVER!!!" because she loves to touch and look at all the ornaments.

D05 --My Favorite Holiday Decoration

In the last post, I discussed interior and exterior holiday decorating. But what is my favorite decoration, you ask?

When I was growing up, there were several ornaments I loved to be the one to hang on the tree. For instance, when I was 11 or 12 years old, I bought my parents an ornament; it was two doves with a red heart in between them. The ornament was glass, and something I had purchased with my very own money. I felt honored to be the one to place it on the tree.

My mom always liked the ornaments that we had made in school. One time I wanted to throw away a really ugly wreath thing that my youngest sister had made in kindergarten with her picture on it. It had become rather ratty over the years. But Mom had a cow and would NOT let me touch it. She said it was one of her favorites. I thought she was nuts.

But... now I understand why.

Last year in kindergarten, DD made a Christmas tree out of popsicle sticks with her picture in the center. I had totally forgotten about it. As we were putting on the ornaments on our tree this year, I finally understood why my mom liked that ratty old wreath. A lump rose in my throat and I had to very nearly wipe a tear away. Someday I will look back at that Christmas tree DD made and wonder where the years have gone.

Heck, I look at it now and wondered where the time has gone!

No matter how many Hallmark ornaments I may collect, the little things DD made will always be my favorites.

D04 -- Holiday Decorating

When we first got married, back in the ancient year of 1997, DH and I were excited to be spending our first Christmas together in our first apartment. We went to Wal-Mart and bought a 6-ft. artificial tree. We didn't have any decorations for the tree, so we bought a few ornaments, too. It was fun putting it together, and then putting all the ornaments and lights on it. I also put up my tiny miniature tree that I had used when I was living alone.

It was so amazing to have our first tree. I remember thinking that we had our whole lives together ahead of us, to make many happy holiday memories. On the day after Christmas that year, we went shopping and bought what became two boxes of Hallmark ornaments.

A few years later, in 1999, we were anticipating the birth of DD in January. We had an extremely busy Christmas Day because we were hosting the family gathering. I got sick on Xmas Eve night, but felt better the next day. (I guess I shouldn't have waited until the last minute to do so much cleaning.) I wondered what it would be like to celebrate the following Christmas, our first Christmas with DD.

In 2000, we went all out on the house, putting up lights on the front and back porch, a new stocking for DD (even though she was not quite a year old yet), and gifts galore.

As the years have rolled on, my collection of Father Christmas figures has grown. We don't even bother with those two big boxes of Hallmark ornaments. Last year, DD made some ornaments at school, and those are displayed prominently this year on the tree. We put up minimal decorations this year. Somehow, the holiday season seems to have snuck up on us. But DD was hugely excited to get the tree decorated. DH put the tree together, and DD and I decorated it. We hung the stockings by the chimney with care, and DD is having fun with the Advent calendar, counting down the days to Christmas. She was thrilled today to count that there were only twenty more days until Christmas. Some decorating was easy this year because we never did put away the nutcrackers or the lighted garland on the mantel last year when Christmas was over.

DH also put up some lights along the fence and sidewalk. He plans to put up a few more on the porch sometime this week. Neither of us has felt particularly motivated to decorate this year, viewing it as a chore, but for DD's sake, we managed to muster up some holiday spirit. Like I said, it seems to have snuck up on us somehow.

I love to look at other people's light displays. They always bring a smile to my face. Usually, before Christmas, we take a drive through town to look at all the different decorations. I love doing this. It wakes up my holiday spirit, which is sometimes in short supply.

D01--Holiday Sights and Sounds

This is the first entry for the Holidailies challenge to write a full month of blog entries for December.

Thank Blogger for backdating!

Today, I took a snow day because the roads were awful. Visibility was poor, and in some areas, ice knocked down power lines. It was the first snowstorm of the season.

The first signs of the holiday season are probably the commercials on tv, advertising gifts that you MUST BUY for your loved ones or else they won't love you anymore. The retail stores put up their holiday decorations the week before Hallowe'en (rationalizing that Hallowe'en is basically over anyway). At least those stores usually hold off on playing Christmas music!

A few commercials appear in early November, but once Thanksgiving week hits, there is a free-for-all. All those companies like Staples, Best Buy, and Circuit City want your business, so they promote steep discounts for Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving -- traditionally the first shopping day of the holiday season. People will stand in line overnight just to get certain items advertised in the flyers and some stores have 'secret' items on sale, which you find out about if you're one of the first people in line.

It only takes a week or so for the commercials to ramp up the guilt train. Last year, I fell victim to the "did I buy enough stuff?" We have one child -- ONE. She is six years old. What possibly could she need more than a nice toy and maybe a couple of outfits? I went crazy, buying an expensive Bratz doll and horse, and many other items. I had purchased so much stuff that I held a few items back for her birthday, in January. And she got even more stuff at the family gatherings from the grandparents. There are still a couple of toys we didn't take out of the box yet. (Yeah, a whole year later!) I was so depressed after Christmas last year because I had overspent and the kid had so many toys that she didn't know what to do with any of them. Just a few days later, she was telling me that she was bored and had nothing to play with.

!!!!!!!!!!!

But I am not letting the guilt train steal me away this year. I have a budget and I'm sticking to it. I told my sisters and my sister-in-law that I would only be buying gifts for the kids this year. I have already purchased the gifts for my nieces and nephew, and I've also bought the two gifts we need for a family party. Santa still has to do a few more things for DD. I even told DH that we should each only spend at the maximum $30 on each other this year. Surprisingly, he agreed with all my changes. I think he learned his lesson last year when he and I spent Christmas weekend baking four different kinds of cookies as gifts for the families and no one seemed to care about our gifts to them.

Another sight of the holidays is the catalogues in the mail. I've gotten two LL Bean catalogues. Plus, in email, I get ads for sales for Sears, The Children's Place, and Bass Pro. It's a neverending deluge. However, I haven't gotten any Christmas cards yet. A lot of people I know have quit sending cards, I like to send them out, because I like to get them -- but I never receive nearly as many as I give. I have my list of card recipients, cards, and stamps, but I haven't yet addressed the cards. I used to write letters to all my old friends that I keep in touch with, but these days, I just sign it. Sometimes I might jot a little note. I have a fairly small list, too, only about fifteen people. If someone hasn't responded to my Xmas card in several years, I usually mark the name off the list. If they can't be bothered to drop an Xmas card in the mail, then I guess I don't need to send them one, either.

We had some warm weather before the storm and many people put up their outdoor decorations. So now when I drive through town, I enjoy looking at all the light displays.

It's the most wonderful time of the year....