ahh...it's here

Oh, how I love the Christmas season! And I know I'm not alone on this one, am I? Just last evening I read Chris's post about getting that old Christmas spirit burning. And Melissa had a wonderful idea in one of her recent posts as well (an idea that I'm going to "borrow" shortly here...hope you don't mind Melissa!).

Anyway, Thanksgiving evening always marks the official start for us. That's when we begin two of our annual traditions...watching a Christmas movie/holiday episode/Christmas special and reading a Christmas book each night. And believe it or not, I did actually remember to bring these necessities along to my parents, as that's where we spent Thanksgiving. So far we've watched a couple short kiddie shows, and then Saturday we watched A Christmas Story (Rich lives for that one all year!). We watched another short one yesterday, but then last night Annie and I watched Hogfather. Wow...now that one is destined to become a favorite in this household, let me tell you! I haven't read the book (in fact, I've never read any of the DiscWorld books...a fact that MUST change soon!), so I can't say how it holds up in comparison. But the movie was a pure treat!

And as for books, we'd been reading short ones each night (mostly ones that feature a cat, thanks to Max). But last night, we started reading When Santa Fell to Earth, by Cornelia Funke. We haven't gotten far yet, but it is absolutely delightful!

And Friday at my parents' house definitely helped stoke those Christmas spirit fires...it snowed all day! Didn't end up amounting to more than 3 or 4 inches, but it was gorgeous and very spirit-inspiring! (When we arrived home, we only had about an inch here, so we were definitely in the right place on Friday.)

As for shopping, we definitely avoided the Black Friday crowds. Ewwww...just the thought of braving that scene makes me queasy. Perhaps I just spent too many years in retail. Anyway, I'm one of those year-round shoppers...I have a true weakness for buying gifts! But even though I've got a lot of shopping done, I still have a lot to do. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever been quite so unprepared at this point before. (Yeah, go ahead and rub it in, Mom! She's not only done with her shopping, but almost done with her wrapping as well.) We did brave the crowds and headed out to Barnes & Noble on Saturday...hey, some stores are worth the slight inconvenience of Christmas mobs, right? Picked up a few more items off the old list there.

My decorating is coming along slowly, due to my obsessive need to super-clean each room before decorating it. Why I don't feel this need to super-clean in the spring like normal people, I just can't say. Anyway, I have managed to clean both the boys' rooms. And yesterday we put up their little Christmas trees. It's amazing how many ornaments they've amassed so far in their short lives. (Last year, we even had to get a bigger tree for Annie, because she has so many ornaments now.) Anyway, very slowly, it's beginning to look a bit more like Christmas, too. Should make some progress on this during the week. I'm not sure if I've mentioned before that Annie has been participating in NaNoWriMo. In the Young Writer's Program she could set her own word goal...but since she loves nothing more than writing (except possibly reading), she decided to challenge herself and go with the "adult" goal of 50,000 words. But, of course, this month has not been kind to her. She got next to nothing written during the week after her grandpa died. And then to make matters worse, we had major computer problems while away for Thanksgiving so she didn't get to write at all for those couple of days. She's currently at 29,000-ish words, with only 5 days left to write. But she doesn't want to give up, so I'm going to let a lot of school stuff slide for the week and let her write up a storm. Though it'll put us even farther behind than we already are on the school front, it will allow me to get some work done around here.

Also on slate for today, is making up our Christmas card list. This is where Melissa's idea comes in. I've been wishing that I could send all my bloggy friends cards this year, but I only have a few of your actual addresses. Well, Melissa was smart enough to just ask. (Duh, Debi.) So if any of you enjoy receiving Christmas cards in your mailbox as much as I do, please just e-mail us your address. (rdagmstevens at frontiernet dot net)

Well, I suppose I should stop babbling away here and just go get something done, huh? Hope you're all enjoying the Christmas season, too!