deck the halls

I have been having a really hard time realizing that it is actually December. With Thanksgiving landing so late in the month, it has shot me straight into panic mode.

I haven't even decorated yet.
When am I supposed to get my shopping done?
We're celebrating next weekend where?
Then the next weekend where?
I thought we were going to have a party.
When will we see the lights?
Yes, we can go downtown and ride the carousel.
How many dozens of cookies can I bake each night?
And is anyone even going to be at our house on Christmas?
I'm going to miss our babies so much...

So this weekend it was time to get our butts in gear. It looked a little like this:

We got up early to go get a tree.
We couldn't find the lot we set out to buy from so decided to save money and time and use our fallback fake tree - convincing ourselves that we would be saving one to boot!
We went out wearing Santa hats, which we forgot about and became confused when at least a dozen people "ho'd" at us.
Mike decorated the outside of the house.
We all decorated the inside of the house.
We went to put together the fake tree and realized that at some point we gave said fake tree away - probably telling each other that with all of the benefits of a real tree, why would we ever need it again?!
We went out to and found the original desired lot to get a real tree after all.
I decorated the tree.
And let us not forget how we loaded up the kids to go to our favorite light viewing spot, only to get lost and finally find it after all the lights were off for the night!

So although this holiday season has snuck up on me and hasn't really gone as smoothly as I've hoped thus far, I'm realizing that it's only just begun. And the timeliness of getting the trees and the shopping and the light watching aren't what's important. It's about all of the love and beauty in our lives and the faith that carries us and makes it all possible. So when I step back, I can only say that I have a ton to be thankful for.

Happy holidays, ya'll!