It’s almost time to pull out the Christmas decorations!! You have no idea how excited this makes me. I might even do some this weekend. We are leaving on December 19 for my parents, so I want to have a good month to enjoy them! :D Christmas is just the best time of year to me. I love it. I love the Christmas music, I love decorating my house, I love wrapping gifts and setting them carefully under the tree. I have a lot of rituals and traditions surrounding Christmas, and they’re very important to me.

Like wrapping. Every year I go on the hunt for the right wrapping paper. I get very excited when I find it (especially if it’s on sale, lol!). I buy enough to wrap all the presents in it. (Sometimes I get a “set” of coordinating paper, so they’re not all the same, but they all “match”.) I have a bin in our basement full of wrapping supplies – tape, scissors, tags, ribbons, etc – and one full of bows. Every present is carefully wrapped and decorated. I get many comments from Den’s family about what an amazing job I do. That seems funny to me, because at my parents’ house that’s just how it’s done! My dad is an amazing wrapper, and I learned from him.

Oh, and I beg Den to buy his own wrapping paper and not show me what it is, and wrap all my presents in it. I think that one stems back to waking up on Christmas morning and finding all these gifts from Santa under the tree in wrapping paper I’ve never seen before. It was simply magical! So I bribe Den into indulging my little silly fantasies. :D

Stockings are another big tradition. I have a stocking for both Den and me, the dogs, and the cats. They’re not small stockings either. And my requirement is that they are STUFFED full! Little goodies… for us growing up the stockings were full of little candies, scratch tickets, socks, nuts, etc. Nothing at all big, but fun little dollar store items. You never knew what mom was going to find on sale and put in your stocking! So I continue that tradition here. I do buy things for my own stocking, but I also ask Den to buy some little trinkets to put in mine. I also buy treats and such for the pets for theirs. Most of their presents go in their stockings. Also a requirement: all stocking gifts be wrapped in tissue paper, not wrapping paper. It’s just how it is! (Den seriously gets a kick out of all these things I insist on. He’s still learning the “rules.” ) The dogs get to unwrap their own presents – usually not a problem if they can smell something inside! Then they’re happy for the rest of the day and leave us in peace. Although, once Zeeke gets the hang of unwrapping gifts he wants to help daddy with all of his presents, too. For Zeeke the cool part isn’t the present, it’s that we’re allowing him to rip up paper. LOL! (He has an obsession with paper and cardboard.)

A friend of mine online is searching for the perfect personalized stockings for her twins – it’s their first christmas this year! – and she posted a bunch of great ones! And that got me thinking about Devin. I could get him a stocking this year – since he’s certainly going to be a part of our Christmas celebration! He’s just not going to be able to participate. ;) (Not like he’ll be able to do much participating next year, either.) But again… all stockings must match. Right now we have different colored stockings… cheap ones, but I like them. They’re fuzzy. I have a maroon color; Den has the blue; Zeeke has the green; Zoe has the white. And I think the cats share a red one, but I forget. I think I might hold off buying pretty matching stockings for us hoomans until we are done with our family… because you know if I buy them next year, when the next kid comes along I’ll want to buy a whole new set. ;) (If I can’t get a matching one, that is – and I highly doubt a particular design will hang around for 3 years!)

So much to think about. :)

Only 1 month left until we leave for Canada!! I’m soooo excited!! I get to see my parents, my brother, my dog! Not so thrilled about the prospect of sharing a double-size bed with my husband, though. Especially since it’s not a pillow-top. I may have issues with that.