GRATITUDE AND CHRISTMAS BALLS

New wreath

See this Instagram photo by @elephant_soap * 8 likes

I realized a few days ago that December is going to be tight. Meaning there's stuff happening every weekend. Meaning, if I want Christmas decorations to go up in our house, I need to get a move on. The problem with that is I am one of those people who are adamant about not decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving. I can go into a thirty minute rage over seeing Christmas ornaments on display in the shops when Halloween isn't even over. We rode our scooters through a neighborhood a few weeks ago and they had all of their Christmas lights on. Not just up, but ON. This drives me crazy. CRAZY! This year I had to make a slight exception to my rule. I spent Saturday deconstructing our old wreath and wrapping it with new ribbon and then filling my decorative lantern with red balls (baaallllls). 

Weeks ago I had purchased some LED lights from IKEA thinking that they were battery powered, but when I opened them I realized I had bought the wrong lights. I dragged Michael back out to IKEA on Sunday to buy the correct lights (and a few things we didn't really need: picture frames, door mat, something else I can't even remember). We bought so many strands of the battery powered lights that I was able to put two strands of lights with my balls (giggle) and wrap a strand of lights around the wreath. Then I still have a set left over that I might use with the nativity scene. I haven't put the nativity scene out since, well, you can probably guess. I put the wreath on the door and then looked at Michael and said "I'm going to Christmas the fuck out this house this year!" Michael just nodded while staring at his phone and mumbled "okay." He doesn't care as long as he doesn't have to get on the roof and put on lights. Though, I might drag my tomato cage tree out this year.

Any way, apparently this year I am all "Trim up the tree!" or my Southern lady gene has finally kicked in. That's probably it. I am making a pumpkin pie this evening from pumpkin that did not come from a can (what have I become?). The pie is for Thanksgiving, which we will be spending with my family in Oklahoma on Thursday. The next few days will look something like this: drive drive drive, spend the night at Mom's, gather around her table for Thanksgiving, digest that meal while spending the evening with my brother and sister-in-law, lunch the next day at White River Fish Market because now that Michael knows it exist we always have to go there, drive drive drive, spend some time with Michael's moms, drive and home. Then I will spend the weekend putting up our new Christmas tree and dragging us back to IKEA because we don't have enough lights for the new tree. And also, it has dawned on me that I am about to set up a seven foot tall Christmas tree and then leave it alone with Michael, the dog and the cat for a week. Bets on who knocks it over first?

I am grateful to have the next few days to spend time with my family and squeeze everybody's neck. I am thankful to have the next few days to get things together for Christmas (including taking our card photo). And because I am so grateful to have all that time, I'm taking the rest of the week off. May your homes be filled with love and laughter and warmth durning this Thanksgiving. Remember to be kind to each other. Some of us are entering 'out of the blue' territory. Remember that before politics there was your family. 

Peace out!