Christmas Decorating

Christmas is in full swing at our house.  Usually, we decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving (or the day we get home from traveling).  This year, we had all been a little sick but when we got home from the beach Friday night Matt’s cough had gotten so terrible—sooo deep and sooo frequent.  I suggested he go to our local after hours doctor’s office the next morning. He spent the night on the sofa and felt so miserable that by 8am Saturday morning he was on his way out the door to see a doc—which never happens! About an hour later he calls to say that he has been diagnosed with severe bronchitis and that the doc has given him a steroid shot & prescriptions for antibiotics and cough syrup. The doc also told him that he needed to have the antibiotic in his system for at least 48 hrs before being around anyone, particularly the children. SO… I have to pack us up and head to my parents, just returned home from a week away, in less than12 hours.

Thankfully my parents were very helpful and I ran back & forth checking on Matt, bringing him food, making sure he was taking his medicine, etc.  Both the girls were wild!  After a week of being away from home, out of routine and the only kids in the complete attention of Matt’s family they were a little spoiled to say the least.  Plus, we all still had coughs, sniffles and mild aches ourselves.  AND, I am totally convinced Sara Gray has started teething!

So, needless to say, our home was not decorated for Christmas last weekend. However, by Day 2, Matt was begging us to come back home and when we did Monday night he had already gotten out all my decorations and had DECORATED THE TREE BY HIMSELF!!  I couldn’t believe it!  While most families remember decorating with that warm, fuzzy feeling inside—for Matt & I, we have a history of getting really aggravated and frustrated…with lights, with lost boxes, with our decorating styles & eventually with each other!  It has gotten better over the years as I have realized that Matt just wants to be involved so I need to give him some tasks with as much explanation of my expectations as possible. Or just give him some tasks that I really don’t care much about. The Christmas tree has never been one of those!  So imagine my surprise when I drove into the driveway and so our tree lit up in the window with ornaments hanging.  He obviously had cabin fever and was ready for his family to come home so we could start getting ready for Christmas.  While I will admit that my tree would probably not look exactly the same—he used my ornaments and tried his best to mimic what I’ve done in the past. 

He even said “look, I remembered what you said about depth…see i put some ornaments in the middle of the tree for depth.”  I don’t exactly remember telling him that but it sounds like something I probably would say.  Then, he pointed to the other dozen or so other boxes and said “I’m not sure what to do with this. I left it for you.”

So, that brings us to today, Saturday.  I haven’t had time to decorate much-just trying to wrap a few gifts after Campbell goes to bed at night. So today I got to work, mainly working on my mantel and a few small touches around the house. I have so many decorations that I have accumulated over the years but there simply isn’t many places in my home that provides safe space away from tiny hands so I have to go through all of it, choosing the little things I can use here and there.

 

Its a little difficult with little ones to get everything out but thankfully, Campbell was in the mood to be a big sister and Sara Gray was in the mood to play!

I laid out a large quilt, Campbell dumped toys on the floor, and the girls played together for a good 45 minutes. I couldn’t believe it!  They both really enjoyed each other and while I never left the room it did give me some time to at least get my mantel done and give a few instructions to Matt who was working outside the house.

Matt’s vision is Christmas Vacation/ The Griswold's.  After a trip to Lowe’s this morning for lights, he quickly assessed that Clark Griswold had a small fortune invested in all those lights.  So he got a few accessories and set out to make our home the corner gingerbread house.   I have definitely loosened up in my 6 1/2 years of marriage because our yard looks t-a-c-k-y! Candy canes, an inflatable Santa and yes, even some colored lights—all my rules totally broken! But its Matt’s project and  makes him happy and Campbell squeals with delight every evening when we come home from work/school so I guess I can live with it. So if you live in Troy and are out looking at Christmas lights, do a drive by. You DEFINITELY can’t miss us this year!!