The Holiday Season

The day before Thanksgiving, Elise began asking if we could put up all of our Christmas decorations ("or at least just the tree!"). As we have said many times before, Marty and I have never been huge holiday people and we are definitely not big on decorating for anything. Obviously this has changed some over the years because kids think the holidays are incredibly fun and it's awesome to share in the excitement with them. But sharing in the excitement of Christmas before Thanksgiving is still a definite no-no in our house. Marty was insistent that we wait until December before putting up anything Christmas related. Elise and Lucas spent their time and energy wearing me down so that I switched to their team (and they won over Aunt Amy too) so Marty was completely outnumbered and we put up our tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving. AFTER Thanksgiving, but a little before December felt like a fair compromise.

People in the suburbs - or at least in our new neighborhood - go all out with decorations for all occasions. Nearly every house on our block decorated for Halloween (and we're not just talking about a pumpkin on the stoop - these are serious decorations) so I was pretty sure that Christmas decorations were going to be out of control.

In our old neighborhood, very few people put up holiday decorations of any kind. So when we put up our tree and hung up a few wreaths, our kids were excited and very satisfied. Only after they got a chance to glance at what was going on at all of our neighbors houses did they realize that our decorations are very tame (lame?). Nearly everyone in our neighborhood has outdoor lights and a large percentage have lawn ornaments and blow ups. The kids both immediately started asking where our blow ups were?! and even though we did cave into putting decorations up before December, I really never see us giving in to having lawn ornaments or blow ups. Mark my words! I have given a speech several times on how looking out of our front window we can enjoy our neighbors decorations much better than we could see them if they were in our own yard facing the street. Neither of them has asked in a few days so maybe my logic is working with them!

To further enhance our Christmas cheer, we went into the City last weekend to enjoy all the shows and Christmas spectaculars the city has to offer. Gram and Grandpa joined us on the adventure and we had so much fun! In the Christmas Village, the kids got to chat with Santa who said to Elise "You are so beautiful" to which she said with an exasperated sigh "I know!" Lucas stuck to asking Santa for "a Lightning McQueen for Elise" (so sweet!) and Elise asked for an American Girl doll. We enjoyed our trip to much we'll probably head into the city again. Luke has a Holiday Performance at school next week (he has been singing Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer a lot at home so I am sure that's involved) and I am volunteering at Elise's school to help her class make Gingerbread houses.

Bring on the (lawn ornament-free) Christmas Cheer!