Deck The Halls (Part I)

The following account is what happens at my home every December...well except for the last five years when I was blissfully away at college.

First, I should mention that I love the holiday season! I love turning out all the living room lights and just looking at the Christmas tree all lit up. I like seeing holiday decorations in every room of the house. I love the glittery gaudy ornaments and I cherish the old porcelain nativity that sits in the hallway. I love Christmas.

I hate putting the decorations up. Saturday while I was at work, yes...it was on purpose, my dad got all the Christmas boxes drug in from the store room in the backyard. Just to let you get the whole picture...there were 20, twenty, 2-0 boxes of stuff to be gone through. The last few years my parents only put up the bare minimum since I was away at school and only home for a few weeks. Anyway, this morning my mom and I got started bright and early. Well, to be exact...she went through the boxes and I did the leg work. We have a lot of stuff...too much stuff. Thankfully, my aunt was over today so my mom pawned off three boxes of stuff to her and me. Basically today we just opened all the boxes and made piles of things around the living room. There is a basket pile, a snowman pile, an ornament pile...well you get the picture.

Tomorrow we will once again hit the decorating trail. Hopefully, it will much less time consuming since we boxed up normal decorations and there are a lot of blank spaces within the house. At least that's my prayer. You guys know how much I love lists so here is a run down of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good
1. The porcelain nativity - this has been around ever since I can remember. My dad's sister sent this to my parents many years ago. For a long time, it was set up in the living room. For the last few years, we've been putting it in the hallway. It's simple and fairly plain, but for me that makes it even more meaningful as it represents the cornerstone of my faith.
2. The Christmas tree - we've had a Charlie Brown tree the last few years. My mom bought it because my dad said he couldn't find our huge almost-touch-the-ceiling tree. It's tiny and just a little bit shorter than I am. This year we have the huge tree out! Right now it only has the lights on it, but the ornaments are coming.
3. The advent calendar - every year there is some sort of an advent calendar out. When I was little it was one that had been made from fabric with little pockets. There was a mouse as the counter. And in the pockets my parents had always placed small little gifts (usually candy or quarters...I'm an only child and make no bones about being a little spoiled, but a good spoiled and not the snotty kind of spoiled...can anyone tell I have a slight complex?). Counting down to Christmas Eve was and still is one of my favorite traditions.

The Bad
1. THESE DANG BOXES!
2. Tommy: The Talking Snowman - my mom loves snowmen. She'll pretty much buy anything that resembles a snowman if it's cute. She fell in love with Tommy the talking snowman. He's about 3 feet tall and has a little motion sensor in his hat. Every time anyone walks by they set him off. He has about four different sayings and it's in that saccharine sweet little boy voice. It's annoying as heck and after the second round of Tommy talking I put him in the corner so he couldn't sense any motion. I hate that dumb snowman.
3. DID I MENTION ALL THESE STUPID BOXES?!!

The Ugly
1. Elf figurines - my mom has this set of three elves that are ugly and kinda creepy too. She normally sets them in the bathroom. I'm telling you that ugly, creepy elf figurines are not what you want to see during a midnight trip to the bathroom. Thankfully, they are part of what is not going to be put out this Christmas!
2. The boxes...it looks like Santa barfed all over the living room, the dining room, the hallways, well basically the whole house.

Look for at least one more update on decking the halls. All this work, at least until it's completely finished, just makes me want to shout Merry frickin' Christmas.