The Joy of Christmas

November is here, Halloween is over and now we are onto the holiday season. Christmas music is playing on the radio (yep, I am listening!), the stores and malls will flood with people on the weekends and all of the ads will be offering deal upon deal to get you to spend money.


I have always loved Christmas. Ever since I was a little girl. I remember setting milk and cookies out for Santa and that butterfly feeling of waking up to a tree full (and I mean full) of presents. My parents always made sure that my sister and I had a wonderful Christmas. They always went out of their way to get everything we wanted as long as it was within their means. I loved baking and decorating Christmas cookies with my Mom and I looked forward to seeing my extended family and spending time with my cousins.


As I got older, some of the excitement seemed to fade away. Christmas was still great, but different. Our baking of cookies disappeared for a number of years and you just fall into life. I have been lucky to always have a bountiful of nieces and nephews to buy for ever since Eric and I started dating. The feeling still felt faded, until I had children of my own.


The excitement of shopping for my boys, setting family traditions of our own, baking and decorating cookies with them and decorating the tree brings so much joy to me. They like singing Christmas songs and reading their Christmas books before bed. Evan loves to help me decorate the tree and both love to decorate (more like eat) the cookies.

I was afraid that with having boys, they might not want to be a part of certain things when it came to Christmas, but so far they love it. I am sure it will change as they get older...but I hope not! I plan on many more years of fun before the feeling fades again. Then, I will have to wait for grandchildren to spark it again.

I am thinking about putting our tree up this weekend. I usually wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving, but I just have this strong desire to put it up this weekend. I really like to enjoy the tree in the weeks leading up to Christmas, then once it is over, everything has to come down. I am over it! So an extra week or two won't hurt. Of course my sister beat me to the punch this year and got hers up last weekend which makes me want mine up even more!!

Over the weekend Evan picked the spot where he wants the tree and made it very clear to me. I can't wait to get it out and have him help me with it!!

We are also headed to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth this weekend. It is the World's Largest Christmas store and is about 45 minutes north of us. We go every year and let the boys pick out a new ornament for the tree. It is one of my favorite traditions! So I guess it makes sense to have the tree set up so they can put their new ornaments on it. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!



Bronner's Christmas Wonderland