It's the most wonderful time of the year!

So, officially, my favorite season of the year is Autumn. I love the leaves changing and the weather and everything. But I must tell you, that my favorite holiday season has arrived.

ITS CHRISTMAS!

*according to Nichole's Rules, the christmas season begins the moment the Thanksgiving meal is over, and last until the ball drops on New Years Eve. During that time it is mandatory to listen to holiday music.

Thanksgiving was . . . unorthodox this year, so we broke tradition by not decorating immediately after the meal. Usually this is when I convince everyone that we should put up the tree, decorations, and villiage. My most persuasive argument is that I will gladly drag all one hundred of our Christmas box (big beefy boxes) out of the basement/garage/attic/ or where ever they happen to be stored that particular year.

So I drug everything out on Friday, and we began to decorate. But another hang up! Due to rats (blast those creatures) the old fake tree is retired to porch duty, and we were without an inside tree. We planned to get a real tree this year and wait till after the season to get a new atrificial. So no tree on Friday.
We also had a few complications with the villiage, which is my dads baby, so it was half up when I left for work. Eight some hours later when I came home (thanks dad for picking me up) I discovered to my delight, a tree in the dinning room!!!!! I worked very hard to convince myself not to stay up into the wee hours of the morning decorating it.
Saturday was another kink. The whole family, myself excluded were going to Indiana to have a late Thanksgiving meal with relatives. I had to work, and therefore had to stay. I sat and stared at the tree. It stared back. (maybe not really that bad) But I knew, that if I began decorating it without the rest of the family, I was so much dead meat, smoke me and use me for stocking stuffers. So I waited. Until Sunday.
Sunday was well . . . interesting. Due to circumstances not quite beyond my control I slept on the coach, which means no alarm. Mom woke up dizzy and lightheaded, Dad woke up sore throat and nauseous( they can't even agree on their symptoms when their both sick!) So, when everyone woke up, church people were already filling out We Missed You Cards.
I think that God organized this little break from the week, (The most spiritual resting day I've had for awhile)
Needless to say, we finally decorated the tree!
I got the ball rolling by mentioning that the whole family was here (tech. Tiff was on the way, but soon to be present.) and that I had to work at three so could we please, please, please, decorate the tree. Sniff. I think it was the tears and grovelling that finally got them, and my volunteering to untangle the lights.

We went with colored lights because we didn't have enough white lights (not that I'm light-racial or anything, I only prefer white lights for that classic look rather than color for the traditional look.) Apparently no one in my family likes putting lights on the tree either, so I did that too. By the time I finished everyone was getting in the spirit, which means the radio was on, the kids were arguing about who got to put on the angel, and dad had found himself a project in another room.
Bulbs first, then snow flakes, then icicles (plastic not tinsel) then the special ornaments.
Every year, everyone in the family gets a new ornament, with their name and the year written on it. We try to coordinate, like the year we got, precious moments, or Winnie the pooh, or snowmen in candy cane stripped outfits, or the smore/marshmallow fig. You get the picture. So everything got put up (and I do mean everything, mom still insists on hanging the can lids that we punched nail holes into and ran a string through during some craft time)
Toward the end it was a scramble for hangers, but I made do for the last three with modified paperclips -- in a festive green -- which I'm going to have to remember when I put up my tree.

So anyway. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am happy. Our house is Christmasy. And I just love this season!!!