TToT – Decking the Halls

December 6, 2014 Off By Lisa

Want to know what I really hate?

I hate how crowded the house feels when it’s decorated for the holidays.

I know, bah humbug. But it really always does and that makes me feel like the holidays are somehow…oppressive, no matter how enjoyable. But not this time!

With the new hardwood floors in place this year, the house feels less cramped overall (who knew carpet was so much of a space hog) and the house feels pretty open so far. I’m very happy about that. We are trying a new location for the tree this year, too, so we’ll see how that works.

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At the moment, we are in full-on decorating mode. (Boxes everywhere!) Kidzilla wants to steamroll through every single thing like gangbusters. Her parents simply don’t have that kind of stamina. So we’ve come to a pretty fair meeting of the minds on how much we will rush through the process. (Hint: we won’t.)

I understand her enthusiasm. In fact, I am thankful for her enthusiasm – it’s so contagious! In fact, I feel more Christmas spirit-y than I have in years. I suppose that could be due to so many factors this year. I still insist on no decorating or Christmas music until Thanksgiving weekend has received its full and due attention. I like to enjoy Thanksgiving as its own thing, despite my Husband’s opinion on the whole thing, and not as the gear-up for Christmas. I do not judge anyone who does it differently – this is just my thing.

That said, Kidzilla waited less-than-patiently for me to lift the ban and put on the Christmas music, but on December first, we cranked it up. I am frankly surprised it hasn’t worn thin already. Zilla sings Christmas songs non-stop. And by non-stop I mean con-stant-ly. But you know what? It’s OK. And I find myself singing along, which is really not me at all. My particular favorite is her rendition of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in which she shouts one word at the top of her lungs when we get to the line, “…voices singing, let’s be jolly, DECK the halls with boughs of holly…” Cracks me up every time.

I’m thankful for simple joys. And coffee. I like to grab a coffee when I do the grocery shopping, especially when I’m alone. It’s just a little treat for me. Friday morning, I went for the candy cane latte. I was not expecting the top to look like this…

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I thought it was so fun and festive that I let out a little “Ooh so cute!” right there in the produce section. Yes it was as delicious as it looks! And yes, I intend to have another one next week.

On Friday night we put up the tree and hung some of our ornaments. I’m thankful none were broken, given the combination of Zilla’s excitement and the hard floors. They are representative of people and events in our lives that are so precious. Sure, they are things and can be replaced. But still, they are of great sentimental value. We ordered pizza because trying to put on a full meal AND put up the tree was not going to happen so I’m thankful for our favorite pizza place and their delivery guy.

The Rotten Cats are thankful that the tree is up because they have their kitty cave back again. The minute the tree is upright, all three cats head underneath.

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I am very grateful that my Daughter and I have established a pattern of chatting at bath/bedtime at night. I can’t tell you how many things I have learned from and about this child while sitting on the closed toilet lid supervising her bath or drying her hair or sitting on her bed at reading time. I think I have a whole separate post brewing about last night’s chat, so I’ll just be glad we do this and pray that these bedtime chats will continue long into the future when those really scary moments in the process of growing up start to show up.

I think I failed to include it anywhere at the time, but I am thankful that the Hub and Zilla got to build a snowman together last weekend. Somehow, neither one of them had ever actually built one. I was floored. So while he turned out to be a bit more of a snow lump, it was still great. You can almost see the lump with arms in front of the Fab Hub’s feet.

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I am glad my hair stylist was able to fit me in with absolutely no notice to fix my most recent haircut. Somehow, when I went two weeks ago, we decided it would be a good idea to cut it for a center part, despite the fact that my hair has always and forever parted on one side. It was clearly a bad choice because my hair has not been quite right since that cut. Not only did she fit me in right away, but she did not charge me for the fix-cut. She’s getting a mighty big tip when Zilla goes for her haircut next week!

What have been your moments of gladness and thankfulness this week? You know the drill…share ’em or link ’em!

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Ten Things of Thankful