This Christmas season is kinda tricky. It's not your clear cut Christmas. Ya know, like put the tree up, buy tons of presents to put underneath it and have a Merry little Christmas. It's a little more complicated this year. Besides the obvious fact that it's our first Christmas season without Grammy, we are also preparing for another big transition in a couple of weeks. We will be moving into our new home down the road sometime in the month of December. But before we can move into the new home it will involve a lot LOT of work. Pulling carpet, treating concrete, painting walls, laying carpet and finally loading up and moving our belongings. Don't get me wrong, I've been waiting for this to happen now for eleven months so I'm super excited...but also super unsure about our plans. So when the topic of Christmas decorating came up I kind of shut down. I can't figure out if it's my sadness about Grammy and that she's no longer here to carry on all of the traditions she started with our family or if it's the fact that I don't even want to mess with it this year in the midst of the upcoming chaos. Either way, I had decided last week that I wasn't going to put up a tree. To make it more complicated of a decision, the tree that we have is 9' tall and very wide and would not have fit well in our rent house. Oh and did I mention that our Christmas decoration storage boxes are at the very back and bottom of a huge (and I mean huge) pile of our belongings in the garage. So another questions was...do I put up a tree at the rent house or at the new house? Well I have no idea when we are going to move into the new house. You see my conundrum I'm sure!! No Christmas tree it would be (and in the case I did cave in and decide to put up a tree it would for sure be AFTER THANKSGIVING!!!)......
....that was until Hallie and I made a detour in Walmart to peruse through the Christmas aisles. I was sucked in. All of the glitter, brightly colored balls, pretty lights, Christmas music and the feeling that came over me....fifteen minutes later I was standing in the checkout line with a medium sized pre-lit tree and a basket full of ornaments to place on it. What was I thinking!?!?! You can't have Christmas without a TREE!!!!!
My mom would kick my booty if I didn't put up a tree. Tradition must stand even when she's gone. She wouldn't have it any other way. Now I'm not sure how she'd feel about putting it up before Thanksgiving but I hope she'll let this one time slide seeing as how we are on a bit of a time crunch at the rent house and all. ;) I waited until Hallie went to bed and got to work putting it all together. Riley was my trusty supervisor from his easy chair. I've always wanted to have lots of Christmas trees spread throughout our home....here's a start. This will eventually be the "white tree" whose home will be our breakfast room off of the kitchen.....
Right now it's home is a tiny space in between our mismatched furniture pieces we are using for the time being. Overall I'm pretty happy with how the white tree turned out considering I picked everything out in about ten minutes as opposed to my usual two hour long contemplation sessions in the aisles at Hobby Lobby. Actually I much prefer not being so obsessive about it. I still have to find the perfect fabric and sew up a tree skirt. Here are some of my favorite ornaments....
Hallie gave me a surprise of my own Sunday morning by sleeping in until 8:00. I was anxious to grab her from the crib and see what she thought about her surprise waiting in the living room. To my surprise she could not have cared any less. In fact, she wouldn't step foot in the room and avoided it at all costs. And her books were even on the floor by the tree. That is saying a lot for Miss Book Worm. After church and lunch she went straight down for a nap and awoke with a much greater appreciation for the sparkly creation....
"When did you do this mom?? Just for me!?!?!"
She has yet to figure out that she can touch the tree and (gasp) remove all of the ornaments. It's only a matter of time though. ;) Since we were in the premature Christmas spirit mood we thought it was a good time to take a drive by Crystal Christmas out at the park. After dropping off a freshly baked key lime pie at Nanny's house we made our way to see some pwetty lights with our little Santa busy munching on milk and cookies in the backseat.....
Awe or terror?? I can't tell which one....
The funny part is that she didn't even get an upclose view of the lights tonight. Riley forgot his wallet at home and I left my purse and we decided that the two quarters I found in my console weren't enough of a donation to actually drive through. Bahahaha!! We drove on the outskirts of the lights all the while Riley making jokes about being a cheap skate. Back home we went. We will attempt it again tomorrow night. ;) I couldn't help but dig out her Santa hat from last season when we got home. And a picture with it on of course......
"I've got the bowl full of jelly part down good"
There you have it folks. After saying I would never....I put up a Christmas tree, dressed my daughter in footed holiday jammies and dug out her Santa hat all BEFORE THANKSGIVING!!! This feels strange but I'm just going to go with it. After all, the lights from the tree sure do make for a relaxing evening and I'd love to snuggle with my cuddly holiday baby anyday!
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