It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

....a tad earlier than usual. Let me first say that I absolutely love Christmas...love it! But I tend to be fairly strict on when the celebration can begin....always the day after Thanksgiving and never a day before. I've even been strict this year although I'm looking forward to Christmas more than ever before. I really missed spending last Christmas with my family. I missed shopping in the malls with carols playing in all the stores. But I still believe that we shouldn't start celebrating this holiday until Thanksgiving is finished. I LOVE Christmas music, but only once Thanksgiving is over. I hate it when Wal-mart puts up the big trees and all the stores start playing music as soon as Halloween is over. Christmas is a great thing, but let's not beat it into the ground right? All of those things were true in my life until this year. But right now, I must confess that my cute little apartment is all ready for Christmas, the Christmas tree lights are plugged in, I'm listening to Christmas music while typing this, and last time I checked my calendar, Thanksgiving is still 2 weeks away. Why the sudden change of heart you might ask....


Laura, Picker, and the girls came through town yesterday afternoon and stayed until this afternoon. I'm not exactly how the conversation started, but somehow it was decided that I needed to find a Christmas tree and that they should help me decorate. I'd like to say that I stuck to my core beliefs and fought long and hard that it is too early, but as Picker says, I'm an easy flip. Can you blame me when Kennedy was putting ornaments on the tree saying, "Wow! I've never done this before Betsy. I'm helping you decorate your Christmas tree!" all excitedly. Yeah, you'd be an easy flip too. I realized that if I really waited until after Thanksgiving to decorate, I'd only have a couple of weeks to enjoy it before going home, and in those couple of weeks, I have my first three basketball games on top of the usual busyness of life as a first year teacher and coach. Plus, it was WAY more fun decorating with my family than by myself and that's what the holidays are all about anyways. I'm so thankful that Laura was blessed with an interior decorating sense that seemed to skip over me. She was also so sweet and bought me some of these super cute decorations while we were at Hobby Lobby. Here I was thinking she was filling up the cart for their house, but it was all for my apartment. I am truly blessed with the family that God has given me, and it was great to enjoy them today and get into the spirit of Christmas together. Here's the finished product of my tree and mantle, and yes, my awesome fireplace is being used. I love Christmas!!!!!!