'Tis the Season to be Jolly

Here we are, newlyweds at Christmastime. What a wonderful juncture of life. Thanksgiving, although scrumptious and memory-filled, just blazed right on by. I have never been more spirited: picking out gifts, decorating our house, listening to Mannheim Steamroller during the work day, and building fires when it's not really even that cold out. And...we are getting our first REAL Christmas tree this weekend! Nothing delights me more than the smell of a Christmas tree and beautiful gifts that are wrapped up to perfection underneath. I have to credit my mom for teaching me how to make giant bows by hand and find the best wrapping paper in town. (Aside: Growing up, the gifts under our tree looked like something in a catalog. There was a 3 year period where mom would "tag" our Christmas gifts by tying a Beanie Baby to the top in the big bow. We could shake the gifts all we wanted, but there was no finding out who's was who's until the early morning of the 25th. Just when we thought we had it figured out, I would end up with the dinosaur and Robert with the cat...go figure.)

You should have seen me and Chris trying to decorate the house last weekend. We swiped the yard clean of any Fall remnants by clearing out the millions of leaves from the front yard. Then it was time to throw up the wreaths with red bows...which was definitely a feat with the prickly holly bushes in the way of the windows. Wheeww...once those were up, Chris got on the roof and tried to put up the icicle lights by sitting on the roof. I, for one, am afraid of heights and he was making me extremely nervous. We borrowed the neighbor's ridiculously tall ladder and that seemed to work much better with me spotting him below. He got all the way to the peak in the roof with lights attached when ALL the clips started popping off. Needless to say, it was just a bit frustrating. We will try again with different clips this weekend.

Who knew that Christmas took so much effort?! It really makes us really appreciate how much our parents did as we grew up. It would be nice to still be under the assumption that Christmas came together like magic, like little elves just do their job and tinsel up the town. We didn't have much at all to decorate with which constituted our big trip to Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago. We got a tree skirt, extra ornaments, make-shift stockings, garland, ribbon, wrapping paper, and gobs more! It was so much fun shopping together and picking out things to go in the house. As soon as we get the tree, we will take some pictures for you to see. More to come...

Love,
L.Winchester