Waiting for Christmas

Each Christmas season for the past two or three years I have been lucky enough to get an early start on the season. I had the tree up and the decorations out within a couple of days after Thanksgiving. By this point, my Christmas shopping was all but complete. I loved this because it allowed me to just relax and enjoy the spirit of giving service, the joy, and the time with family that Christmas is supposed to be. However, this year the only things decking our halls are boxes of tile and building supplies for the bathroom. Having the bathroom “poop out” on us just before Thanksgiving was not conducive to holiday decorating! Robert is working on it with every spare minute that he has, but remodeling a whole bathroom is just a major project, no matter how you look at it or how hard you work. So this year I am “waiting for Christmas” in more ways than one. I am just trying to enjoy the things that ARE available to me.

We had a family Christmas party at church. It was not only fun, but it certainly fulfilled the idea of giving service at Christmas. I will soon be posting more on the story of the actual party on my new blog, “Womanly Decadence” (I think I may need to join a 12-step program for compulsive bloggers). Anyway, at the party they had set up a cute little “forest” of trees and I noticed that many families were having their pictures made in front of them, so I persuaded Alan to let me take his picture. Can you see the boyish glee on his face at being around all the little kids running around? (Me neither! But, I’m glad he was a good sport and went with me.)


Meanwhile, at Miss Popper’s house, Christmas is up and running! Her mother and father have put up not one, but multiple trees. She also had a great time the other night when her parents took her to her first official ornament exchange with Jeromy’s family. This is a tradition of his extended family, and I really like it. Since there are so many members in his extended family, the annual ornament exchange is the one opportunity for the whole clan to get together at the holidays. Each participant brings an ornament; I’m still not clear if it is like a “white elephant” game or what, but at the end of the evening each participant goes home with a different ornament. Mandy is starting a box for Miss Popper’s ornaments from the annual party, and Mandy and I plan on each adding an ornament, too. The idea is that when Miss Popper leaves home someday she will have a good start on a tree of her own with decorations that have a history and meaning.

Here are Mandy and Miss Popper, ready to go:


At the ornament exchange Miss Popper was passed from relative to relative, and seems to be having a great time:



I had bought the little outfit that she was wearing and was so tickled to see that Mandy took this shot. What a cute little bum!


Hope you are enjoying the Christmas season!