What to do...

I'm in this kind of weird spot today.

Well, first of all, I'm on day 5.5 of feeling like a bucket full of poop so it's a miracle I'm even on the computer. I think the fact that I've been holed up inside my house for days is excuse enough to want to blog... to feel like I'm actually communicating with the "outside" world. So I'm listening to Anthony Skinner, playing peek-a-boo with my little guy and blogging. For now, at least.

It's amazing how much cold/flu season totally isolates Moms. We stay home to keep our sicknesses away from our friends and their kids and in the process, we lose the very vital and valuable time to socialize and "normalize" away from the never-ending lists of "to dos" in our homes. I think on this Friday, 3 of my friends or their kids are sick and at home. Good times abound.

This has nothing to do with what I was planning to blog about.

Here's what I was really going to blog about: Christmas.

It's November 5th. I know some of you are already dragging out the rubbermaid containers of Christmas junk/treasures and getting into HOLIDAY MODE! I always wait until after Thanksgiving for a couple of reasons.

1. Thanksgiving is such a great holiday in and of itself and I don't want to take away from it with all the focus on the holidays that come after it. And this holiday is pretty novel for me still, since I've only moved the USA in 2002 and thus, began to celebrate "American" Thanksgiving. In case you didn't know, Canadians have a Thanksgiving in October. (My husband strongly recommends marrying a Canadian to cash in on another turkey dinner each year... ha!) And I love Thanksgiving for the fact that it's really a totally non-materialistic holiday. The entire celebration is focused on food, which is one of the BEST parts of life. Is it not?

2. Because of my Canadian roots, in my family we never considered it really "appropriate" to decorate for Christmas until December 1st. I'm sure that's changed for a lot of people but growing up, people waited. December was the beginning of that season, with the advent calendar to count down with us! And in our family, we always had a fresh tree so getting it too early would just mean a dried out fire hazard by Christmas morning. So, because I live in the states now where it's much more acceptable for me to decorate earlier than December 1st, I start the day after Thanksgiving! YAY!

So with this in mind, I'm looking forward to Christmas but I'm waiting until after Thanksgiving to drag out my (11??) boxes of Christmas decor. Or rather, Luke will drag them out while rolling his eyes and exclaiming about how ridiculous it is that we have all of this stuff. But he quickly stops complaining when our home is all festive and beautifully decorated... which is usually days later, as it takes me some time. Probably weeks later, now that Hudson is in our home!

Anyway, Christmas has some interesting implications for our family this year. Some special, and some... not so special. The most exciting this is that it's Hudson's first Christmas! I am so excited to see his face when we light and decorate our tree! He's so observant so I'm sure it'll be great fun!!

The less exciting part will be that we're really dedicated to getting out of debt, even during the Christmas season, which means... we're not really doing gifts. Or maybe not a lot... I think? Luke and I haven't talked about it yet. But it's just the way it is this year. Purely by choice so it's not completely depressing but still... I have a big list of things I would love to buy for Luke and Hudson this year.

But whatever. Life is good, regardless of "stuff" and focusing on relationship during the holidays is meaningful enough for me this year! However, I do LOVE giving good things to people that I LOVE so if you're doing the gift thing, have fun!!!! Give them with joy! Give, give, give!!! But also, give love and thankfulness and thoughtfulness, and time and yummy baked treats and hugs and kisses and romance (just to one person... lol) and deep heart things too! And those are probably the things we'll be giving a lot more of this year! And I'm okay with that! Because next year we'll not owe a cent to anyone except our dear mortgage company (ha ha!) and I will be fully embracing my shopping list! With both hands and probably even a big kiss!

I'll probably blog a lot about the holidays during the holidays... if you like, read! Here are a few photos from Christmas 3 years ago in our home. I'll post other years on other days.

Oh, how I love a lighted tree!

I decorated our tree mainly in red and black. It changes every year...

This ornament was a gift from Luke's mom when we were engaged because we were "counting down the days/hours/minutes" until our wedding day!

In case you were wondering, Grandiflora in Lynden is THE BEST PLACE EVER to buy Christmas tree ornaments. I buy a few new ones every year. They're just gorgeous! Happy Friday.