It is appropriate that I am writing this post on January
9th 10th 11th 12th- it pretty much goes with the theme that I have been operating on all holiday season. Part "Better Late than Never" and part "Ah Crap - I Forgot to do That!" Buying presents, baking cookies, decorating, remembering to put Christmas CDs in the car, being in the holiday spirit, reading Christmas stories, taking a holiday picture for the Christmas cards you are supposed to send before December 25th -- all are more difficult to remember to do, or to find time to do, when you are keeping track of 5 little people. So, I have christened this past holiday season the "Half A$$ Christmas". Here's a little sampling of holiday activities that I slacked on.....
Ah - my grandmother's awesome retro Santa plate, begging for a heaping sample of sptriz cookies, sugar cookie cutouts, white chocolate dipped pretzels and peanut-butter filled ritz crackers, chocolate crinkles, and oreo balls. Instead - its covered with a broken Marvin the Martin ornament, expired Kholes coupon, 2 doctor appointment reminder cards, children's church check-in card, and a piece broken off one of the girls' headbands.
I made 1, count it 1, batch of Chrismas cookies which I took to a neighbor's house when we were invited over there for dinner so I could fake my holiday baking. So, instead of being laden with holiday goodies as he was meant to be, poor Santa served as a holiday junk holder.
The beautiful holiday door welcoming all who enter. See that greenery framing the door - it looks gorgeous when all lit up at night. Key is, you've got to run an extension cord from the greenery to the plug-in to make it glow. Cord never got run, greenery never was glowin. Adorned by 2 adorable matching trees that we just had to buy this year to make our entry perfect. Well, the 2 for $14.99 trees apparently aren't too heavy, and so they spent much of the holiday season tipped over or falling off their stands at the slightest breeze. After the 29th time of picking them up, we just gave up and pretty much left them as you see in the picture.
Why the shopping bag you ask...??Well, a couple of our gifts to my nephew's were wrapped in bags like these because we realized while in the throws of Christmas morning present opening, that the boys' gifts were still sitting in the storage cargo under the middle row of the van. So, while everyone else was unwrapping, I ran out to the van, grabbed the gifts, the closest bags available (I think it was a brown paper Chili's bag and some other random shopping container), and shoved them in!
Stockings hung by the fire...ready for Santa. Though it looks like 2 out of the 7 of us are going to be shorted. Never got around to ordering another 2 stockings for the new little people. Hopefully #4 and #5 won't look back at the 2011 holiday photos and realize there were no goodie holders hung with care for them. And if they do, it turns into parental lie time when we tell them
hubby and I didn't have stockings that year...I knew there was a reason I never had them name embroidered.
The crown jewel of all holiday decorations - the tree. I have to say, from this angle it doesn't look too bad. But, if you look a little closer, you will notice that you can see a whole lotta wall behind the tree.
Since L and I were married, we have always gone as a family (no matter how many kids) to pick out the tree. We went tree shopping 3 weekends before Christmas - that Saturday was beautiful - sunny, warm for December, a great day to pick out a tree.
We didn't go that day.
We went the day after - a cold, wet, rainy Sunday. We loaded all 5 kids in the car after church and headed to our traditional family site and oasis for picking out perfect trees - The Home Depot. L and I went back and forth the whole way there - pick out a soggy gross tree out in the wet or give up, go home, and have a tree-less holiday. I couldn't fathom the idea of no tree, so we got everyone out of the car after a long chat about puddle avoidance in church clothes, and went to get our tree.
There were lots of trees that were beautiful - full, shapely, lush,.......... and 3 feet tall. Move over to the 5 foot + area, and there were 3. One looked like someone had shaved off the back side, one looked like it had been on a drunken binder for about a week, and then there was this one... holey, a bit barren, missing a large chunk on one side, and ours for the taking. We christened it the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, loaded it on the van, and brought it home.
Even with strategically placed extra-large red glittery snowflakes, you can still see the spaces. But, I figure it kinda fits the holiday we had. A little bit ragged, a bit holey, but beautiful if you glance at it quickly and keep moving.
PS - It's January 12th. The tree is still sitting in our living room - de-ornamented, de-garlanded, and de-lighted, but still standing in all its holey glory. Who wants to place bets on when it makes it outta here???? I'm sayin March at the earliest.....
