It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year



This is not our house, but our fireplace mantel looks as busy as this.


I've decided there are two types of people in this world: the ones who get excited on the day after Thanksgiving and pull out all the Christmas decorations, flip to the all-Christmas song radio station and start trimming the tree, and those who look forward to December 31st when the Christmas season (in our house, anyway) is officially over and all the Christmas decorations and disorder can be put back away. I think you can tell which group I fall into.

My husband loves Christmas. He loves everything about it. I almost have to police him so that we don't start Christmas before November. He loves the carols, the decorations, shopping, baking, and everything that goes with Christmas. My mother feeds into this mania and gives him all her old Christmas decorations. He puts EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM OUT. It looks like a yard sale exploded in our house.

I, on the other hand, start clenching my teeth and grumbling the minute I see the boxes of decorations come down from the attic. It's not that I don't like Christmas. I do. It's just that all the frenzy and chaos of it wears me out before the season has even begun. All of a sudden, every surface in our house is covered with as many decorations as will fit. Everyone I meet starts asking me whether I've gotten my shopping done, baked cookies, wrapped presents, sent out Christmas cards, etc., etc. Joyousness is forced down my throat and presents are piled so high that half of our family room is suddenly inaccessible. I look at it all and want to swipe my arm and knock everything into a gigantic garbage bag and call up the Grinch to take it away.

Whew! Got that off my chest.

Luckily, we are a superstitious lot in my house and believe that everything has to be put away by January 1st because it's bad luck to bring the old year in with the new. So on December 31st, I eagerly pack up all the red and green goodies, take down the tree, put away all the gifts, unclench my teeth and breathe because my house is finally back to normal for the next eleven months.