The OTHER Best Thing About Christmas

Yep. There is Jesus. The best thing about Christmas for sure. And then there are Christmas cards in the mail. Really that is a truly awesome part of Christmas. BUT, over the last week I've discovered something that just might trump Christmas cards. Especially now that that Christmas is over and so are the cards: NOT having to drive my kids anywhere. Ever. Or wake them up for school. Or get them dressed in a hurry while shoving toast down their throats. No frantic searches for the other shoe at 7:30 am during which the baby wakes up and is starving and poopy and needs my attention NOW. No hurriedly slapping together a peanut butter and honey sandwich while Daphne has a melt-down about her sock seams and whether or not she gets red Doritos or blue Doritos in her lunch.

I am not a morning person. Never have been, never will be. So getting up in the am with my kids to get them (mainly Daphne) ready for school is a HUGE sacrifice. I would love to tell her to get herself ready so I could keep sleeping. Or to find a school that starts at 10am and keep sleeping. But neither of those is going to happen, so I just have to get up and suffer through that frantic hour before I push her (usually literally) out the door and throw her school bag after her (not literally. She can't catch that well.)

So at this special time of year where we give thanks for Jesus and his birth and life and sacrifice and atonement and Christmas cards in the mail, I also want to give a massive thank you for school vacations and turned off alarm clocks. Haaaa-aa-leluia.

Beyond the Obvious

There are lots of reasons to like Christmas. Baby Jesus, for one. Christmas lit streets, for another. Presents, of course. Especially watching your kids open them. I feel bad for anyone who thinks they will keep themselves younger by not having kids. Ya, you'll lose some sleep if you have kids, but you will regain the joy of Christmas morning, which is worth a few lost z's--even coming from this sleep connoisseur. Eggnog. Yes, I like it. Sue me. Really cute wrapping paper. Ornaments. Carolers, when you're lucky enough to hear them. But honestly, my favorite thing about the Christmas season has got to be the mailbox. For once in the whole year I actually enjoy getting the mail. Normally it's full of junkmail and flyers and the occasional bill. But for 2-3 glorious weeks, it's full of REAL mail, mail from PEOPLE, people who don't want money from me. Well, maybe they do but they are polite enough not to ask for it. Anyway, today, for example, there was no junk mail, not even any shopping ads. Just TWO CHRISTMAS CARDS!!! Sigh (of contentment)...

It's been a kinda sparse year for Christmas cards. Normally our Christmas card holder (i.e. blank kitchen wall) is packed. We have lots of space left this year. You may notice that you haven't gotten one from us either, so I may sound like a hypocrite But we are sending one out. No, really. Just as soon as it gets here from the printers. (I may have put it off just a tad too long this year.) Anyway, thanks to those who sent one. It made this already joyous season a little more fa la la-ier.

How To Keep From Overspending At Christmas Time

I don't know about you, but I've never walked out of Costco EVER without spending at least $100. Even if I went in there JUST to buy a tray of cocktail shrimp for $9.99 (doesn't everything at Costco cost $9.99??), I always end up throwing a bunch of really good bargains (i.e. super delicious mega sized portions of whatever that lady was handing out at the end of the aisle) into my cart.

So today when I went in for a pack of AA batteries, I came up with a foolproof way to keep from overspending which I will generously share with you: Don't get a cart. That way you can only buy what you can carry.

As it turns out, I can carry quite a bit. 1 pack of AA batteries, 1 giant case of taquitos (hey, we're almost out!), a bag of truffles (teacher gifts are coming up, you know), some wrapping paper (I am addicted. Seriously, disturbingly, ADDICTED to buying Christmas wrapping paper. I'm pretty sure I could wrap all the presents in North America right now. But this paper was so cute...I couldn't resist!), a Christmas music CD two pack (um...no excuse for this one. Just a pure impulse buy) and a giant package of Oreos (you should see my kids inhale Oreos!). I am pretty sure my biceps increased by 2 inches by the time I got to check-out. BUT...only $57! Cha-ching!

So, almost foolproof. You're welcome.

Sad

I took down my tree yesterday. I love my tree. I love my decorations. It made me happy every time I passed by them. I also took down my outdoor lights. Every time I looked out the window or pulled into the driveway, the glow of the white lighs draped across the porch overhang and the bushes made me smile and feel warm inside. I took down all the other Christmas decorations around the house yesterday too, but I didn't mind those so much. After a few days they just felt like clutter. But the tree and the lights....those made me sad.

O Tannenbaum

When we first got married, one of the things I was most excited about was picking out our very first Christmas tree. It seemed there was a Christmas tree lot on every corner, so we had plenty to choose from. It was early December when we first went searching. Cold, snowy, starlit, romantic--just like in the movies. I donned a vibrant scarf and knit beanie for the occasion.

The first lot we stopped at had trees starting at $45. FORTY FIVE DOLLARS! And those were the small ones! Beautiful firs, green and lush, but only about 5 feet high. We were poor newlyweds back then and $45 was about our entire Christmas shopping fund, so that would never work. We stopped at the next place. Their trees were hijacked from some oxygen deprived, north-facing mountainside, I am pretty sure. They weren't firs at all, but some kind of pea green scrawny pine. A branch here, a tuft of needless there. Pitiful. They looked like the kind of tree a Grinch would have. I'm not sure how much they cost because we turned around and left pretty fast. We stopped at the next place and found their trees were decent, but more expensive than the first place. Eventually we got too cold to keep searching and stopped off at the local Albertsons to get some hot chocolate mix. There in the parking lot they were selling Christmas trees. Actually, it wasn't even in the parking lot. It was on the sidewalk right up against the front windows. Big piles of them all crammed together. Nobles here, Douglases there, and on the end the beautiful Grand Firs. And they were all about half as expensive as the tree lots. It wasn't exactly the romantic tree-choosing episode I had envisioned. Instead, here I was climbing on top of piles of trees under the bright florescent lights of the Albertsons parking lot along with half a dozen other cheap-skate tree buyers. Like masses of ants digging for crumbs in a pile of grass clippings. Soon we found a winner. A 7 foot, $29 Noble Fir. Beautiful, full, green, fragrant--everything a Christmas tree should be. So it wasn't an ideal selection process....but it was an ideal tree.

We saved ourselves the trouble, in subsequent years, by heading straight to the Albertsons pile-o-trees. But then, two years ago, the pile mysteriously failed to appear. We went the rounds at other grocery, hardware stores, and independent lots, and just couldn't accept the size, quality, or prices we found. The season was growing later and we still had no tree. It was then that we first considered an artificial tree. And by "considered" I mean that Big Daddy's begging me as he had every year since we got married to please, for the love of all that was holy, just-give-up-my-romantic-notions-about-real-trees-and-get-a-fake-one finally worked. But it was already into the second week of December and we weren't sure just what, if anything, we'd find at the stores. And it killed me to think of spending hundreds of dollars on a plastic tree. But at this point, I didn't see many options.

Our first stop was Target. The Christmas tree section was picked pretty clean. Though a dozen sample trees stood lit and decorated, the shelves were quite bare. After a few minutes, we saw a display tree that we both really liked. Very real looking, a nice ashy green, not brazenly dark and waxy like some of the others. It had pine cones. It was scratchy like a real tree. You had to get right up close to tell that it wasn't real. It was pre-lit. And it was even on clearance. Marked down to $79 from the original $250! But we couldn't find one in a box on the shelf. We called over a salesperson and were told that they were all sold out. Our faces fell. And I don't know if the salesperson felt sorry for us or if they were just that eager to clear the Christmas section, but she told us we could take the sample tree if we wanted. Let me get this straight. We can take the one that is already set up? No putting it together at home, filling out the smooshed branches, figuring out how to get the light strings together? Um, Sold! Next we found two of the hugest Rubbermade bins you've ever seen to store the tree in (of course the display tree's box was long gone), and lugged our beautiful, fake tree to the front of the store. There we were met with another surprise--because ours was he display tree, it was half off. So, our expensive, real-looking, prelit fake tree ended up costing us $42.59 including tax. Now to figure out how to get that tree home in the Mini Cooper.

In the end, Big Daddy drove home and swapped the Mini out for our SUV and came back to pick up me and the tree. We drove home with our artificial proudly strapped to our roof. At least I was proud. Were we posers? Maybe. But it was my last time to make that drive, with a Christmas tree strapped to my roof.

This is the third December since we got our fake tree, and I now take solace as I'm fluffing my fake tree's wire limbs in the fact that its needles don't litter my carpet all month, that my tree looks as lovely when I take it down in January as it did when I put it up in December, that the branches are all sturdy and hold up my ornaments without drooping, and that I'm not covered in sap from putting it up and taking it down. But deep down inside, I still long for the good old days of starlit nights, snowy drives, and a grocery store sidewalk piled with fresh Christmas trees.

The 24th

So I need some serious reader participation on this one. I'd like to think of Christmas Eve traditions we can do with our kids. Daphne is just old enough to begin to understand what Christmas is about, and to anticipate it a little bit. So I think I want to start creating family traditions that she can look forward to every year and that our other kid(s) will enjoy as they grow older. We already have the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve. I plan on us making sugar cookies and decorating them on Christmas Eve Day to leave out for Santa. And maybe doing something with the nativity scene, but they're too young to really act out anything yet so I don't what we'll do. So far people have also suggested getting new jammies every Christmas Eve. But I'd like something really big, or meaningful, or unique to do to make Christmas Eve a special day. So does anyone else have any fun ideas on what we can do for really little kids to create a fun Christmas Eve tradition? Thanks!

Christmas Quizacle

I love a good questionnaire, so here goes...


1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I save gift bags for birthdays and showers. For Christmas, it has to be wrapping paper.

2. Real tree or artificial? I prefer a real tree for looks and smell. But I have to say that the clean up and ease in keeping our new artificial tree alive is pretty sweet.

3. When do you put up the tree? The first day in December usually. This year it was the 4th because I was on vacation.

4. When do you take the tree down? January 2nd.

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but only in small portions.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Kittens: Holly and Ivy.

7. Do you have a Nativity scene? I finally got one last year. But I want another one. A bigger, more detailed one. The one I have is pretty simple.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My BIL Darren. He buys whatever he wants when he wants it and I don't know his taste in personal items well enough to shop for him.

9. Easiest person to buy for? My sister. I know her taste really well.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't think of anything specific. I'm usually pretty grateful for whatever I get.

11. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Mail all the way! Real cards. If someone sent me an e-Christmas card, I'd send them an e-finger! FYI :)

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? A few things in November, most in early December, a few stragler items on Christmas eve!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Eggnog milkshake or peppermint ice cream.

16 Clear lights or colored on the tree? Although there is something romantic to the colored light glow, I go with white for my tree because my other decorations are so multi-colored.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Away in a Manger. Makes me cry every time. When I was in primary, I'd cry during every opening exercises the entire month of December.

18 Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home, if I can help it.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? yes. Do you think I'm retarded?

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star. LIT star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open one present on Christmas Eve and the rest in the morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Christmas music just after Halloween.

23. Favorite Christmas tradition? We don't have a lot of Christmas traditions in my family. But I do like that my family opens presents one at a time, youngest to oldest and back to youngest. That way we get to see what each person gets. My in-laws do a present free-for-all and then you have no idea if the people liked the presents you gave or what anyone else got.

24. Up early or sleeping in? I'd LOVE to sleep in. Isn't likely to happen. (I always slept late as a kid, as late as my early bird sister would let me).

25. Who hands out the gifts? As a kid, it was my sister Jennie. I guess we'll have to form a new tradition as my own kids get older.

26. Does Santa wrap your gifts? It remains to be seen. This is the year that Santa will be visiting our house for real.

27. Do you tell the Christmas story? Haven't yet. I guess we'll have to start that tradition too. I think we'll get out the nativity scene and show the kids the story that way.

28. Do you leave cookies for Santa? Ooo, that's another one I haven't thought about. See, when you have your first child finally old enough to think about and understand Santa, you have to figure out all these details!

I'm adding one more...

29. Where are your stockings hung? Since we don't have a fireplace or mantel, they are hung on our upright piano (Which is where the old fireplace used to be. so I think santa can find them OK.)

Merry Christmas! And consider yourself TAGGED! (Thanks, TIB!)

Christma-Cola

I didn't think it was possible for Coke to get any better. Or Christmas. But they both just did. They got married and had this fabulous baby. Check it out.



It's like a Coke bomb--those old fashioned kind like the ones that the Road Runner left around for Wiley Coyote. But less explosive. And more yummy. Courtesy of Smiths Marketplace (and brought to me by my own personal Coke delivery girl. Sorry, I think she only works for me. You're going to have to get your own delivery girl.)

Thanks Kelli!

Ornament Swap

I participated this year in Tiburon's ornament swap, and Tanja over at On That Note, really picked out a beauty. Satin finish with an antique bronze cap. Lovely. See?



She also included treats, which makes it tripley (is that a word?) awesome. I can't wait to decorate my tree! I just got it out of storage today, so I better get to it.

Merry Christmas!

Fa La La La La

I usually am a serious stickler for doing the holidays in order. And so I usually get majorly bent out of shape when stores start marketing Easter as soon as the Christmas goods have been cleared up, or putting out school supplies even before the Fourth Of July has passed, or playing Christmas music before I've even put up my Halloween decorations, let alone celebrated Thanksgiving.

But today I went shopping at Costco for butter, eggs, and chicken nuggets. 20 minutes later I had butter, eggs, chicken nuggets, and $50 worth of Christmas wrapping paper, Christmas gift tags, Christmas tissue paper, wrapping paper cutters, and tape dispensers. And as I wandered through the seasonal aisles full of twinkling lights and shiney ornaments, I found myself humming Deck the Halls without meaning to. I couldn't help it. Those nodding yard deer and musical Santas just got me in the mood.

I have betrayed everything I believe in. I hate myself.