Hey mister where's your Christmas spirit

Anyone remember what movie that's from?

Anyway... In a typical year my little family goes like this: J super excited about Halloween and me thrilled for Christmas and valentine's day. But this year I just couldn't seem to muster up the spirit to decorate. I got the gifts (albeit a bit later than normal) and they're wrapped - rather prettily I might add! But putting up a tree? I'll pass.

Well apparently Joy without a tree is just not a thing. Friends kept saying they were going to break into my house and put up a tree... I laughed! Yesterday I went to the gym and when I got home there was J with our old tree half put up (we hadn't used a fake tree in a couple years) and the bah humbug I am pointed out there's rust on it ;-) he soldiered on BY HIMSELF. And in the end I have a tree.

I told him while he was making it that I was going to blog that I admitted that I have an ugly tree (because people always post trees that might not be pretty and say "look at my gorgeous tree") and he laughed. I asked him why he was putting it up he said "because you'll regret not having a tree after its too late for me to fix it" I don't know if he meant after Christmas or after the nor'easter we are getting this weekend! 

But now I'm going to say to you look at my gorgeous tree because rust (and the fact that its only half a tree so it could squish against the window) and all it's the most beautiful tree I've ever seen - its a tree built with love!

At some point you give up

On sleep that is!

I started trying to fall asleep at 8 (both the hubs and I were exhausted) but here It is 1:56 and I'm still WIDE awake. I think it may be time to say uncle and realize that there is no sleep for me tonight.

That's okay, sitting by the glow of the tree and crocheting a scarf for my favorite man isn't a bad way to spend a night. And really I can rest tomorrow! We have a pretty low key day ahead of us. Maybe stopping by my niece's house to drop off gifts in the morning and going to my sister's in the afternoon!

I'm pretty pumped to give one of my nieces her gift (the bacon scarf a couple of posts back) and I think my sister will like what I got her (a set of plates with a lodge theme - very much her house) and I'm kind of excited about a clock I got the hubs (it holds all the state quarters) and a few other gifts. I (as always) went overboard this year but I really tried to get gifts I thought were super personal to each recipient.

And I'm super excited to put the poodle in his Christmas jammies and watch him open his stocking. Rumor has it that the big guy in the red suit bought him: carrots! A nylabone. And lots of squeaky toys!! It will be a glorious Christmas at my house!

And hopefully at your home too.

what are you most looking forward to for Christmas?

Christmas meme

Here's a fun meme I got from http://raeshadrz.blogspot.com/2012/12/ive-been-so-mia-here-lately-im-having.html


1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Peppermint tea (I'm foreshadowing I'm a failure at this one ;-)

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Neither he puts them in stockings

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Depends on the year. This year it's jewel toned lights on the tree but I haven't plugged them in yet

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nope

5. When do you put your decorations up?
Whenever I'm in the mood

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Used to be my sister's chili

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
Caroling

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
What? I still believe in Santa. He lives in our hearts and will always be real to me:) (her answer but its perfect so I'm keeping it)

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Yes - pajamas

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
With the hubs and the poodle

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
I like snow as long as I can be warm

12. Can you ice skate?
Badly

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
I'm not a big gift person. But I'd say my favorite was the year my niece made me a book of her poems

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
I don't know

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Hot apple cider

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Bringing gifts to the nursing home on Christmas morning

17. What tops your tree?
A silver ornament thing

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
Giving!

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum?
YUM!

20. Favorite Christmas movie?
Charlie Brown Christmas

21. Saddest Christmas Song?
Christmas shoes (no really I have to pull over to listen to it)

22. What is your favorite Christmas song?
Joy to the world (because its the last song we sing at midnight mass before we walk out into a holy world)

tell me one of your favorite Christmas traditions

And really, isn't my dog painfully cute? Ugh

Who are you???

In the last few days I've had a couple different "who are you" moments...

1 was when a friend invited me over to help her decorate for Christmas.

Her home was so simply and elegantly decorated (I mean think Martha Stewart here). Now we've been friends for years so I knew it would be but it never ceases to amaze me because she is so not Martha in her day to day life. This got me thinking about my own decor. My Christmas decorations are very cute... Things that make me smile and are inexpensive enough that I can replace them if I needed to (other than the "ornament of the year" for hubster and I). Nothing screams JOY to me! But what does? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it isn't something you can buy. I'm big on tradition - I would be sad if we didn't do stockings, I'd be sad if we didn't do a Christmas photo card, I'd be sad if I didn't get pajamas on Christmas eve, I've been sad the years I've missed Christmas eve service... To me those are Christmas - not the wreaths, or the plastic people out front, or the tree...

-------------------------------------------

Another instance of who am I came when a friend called me after seeing breaking dawn. She called to discuss how Bella looked at a certain point in the movie and I had seen thinness and light and beauty and my friend saw me and my death and said she'd had to leave the theater to compose herself. And although I felt a fleeting guilt I also felt pride that MAYBE I was getting to a weight where going out was okay and people wouldn't "see" me...

And it occurred to me again, who am I? Who is this person who hears her friend cry and thinks "almost there Joy, almost there"?

A thought to ponder!

+++so, how do you decorate?+++

Why I make gifts

This morning I woke up bright and early to do some more on a Christmas present I'm making for my sister. It's a neck warmer and it's made on my trusty knifty knitter. My sister is a proficient knitter, crotcheter, sewer, and scrapbooker so she could easily make one as beautiful as this in probably half the time.

So why am I making it? Easy, because as I sat here counting stitches I *almost* sat here having a conversation with her. As I make gifts I tend to reflect on good times I've had with the person and wishes I have for them. I think (and hope) that my loving thoughts pull through on their presents.

And really, a morning with my sister was a great way to wake up!

+++do you make any presents? If so, why? And do you like getting home made gifts?+++