Excited

I am getting SO excited for Christmas this year! Yes, yes, I know we still have Thanksgiving coming up, and I will enjoy Thanksgiving and eat lots of food... but I LOVE Christmas!!! Last year, Christmas wasn't as fun for me as it usually is, mostly because we were living with Jacob's parents and I didn't have any of my Christmas things and I couldn't decorate my own place. Decorating for Christmas is extremely important to me, as any of my old roommates know, and I'm so excited to be able to decorate our townhouse this year! I even got special permission from the husband (who has a very strict "No Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving" rule) to decorate early! My reasoning for this is that I am huge & pregnant & exhausted & uncomfortable, and I only get more huge & pregnant & exhausted & uncomfortable every hour, so if I don't decorate now while I have a tiny bit of energy, it won't get done... which would be completely unacceptable--we HAVE to have a decorated home for the holidays. So we got all of our decorations out of the closet and whenever I've had a little time & energy, I've been cleaning and then decorating various parts of the house. And it's a good thing I am getting started early, because in the past two weeks, all I've had the energy to do is hang up the stockings and wrap some lights and garland around the banister. I had to buy Naomi and the new baby some ugly, cheap stockings from Walmart because we only had ones for Jacob & me, but they will have to do for now! I even put Naomi's name on her stocking with fabric paint without ruining the stocking! I attempted to put the names on Jacob's and my stockings two years ago when I bought them, and I almost ruined them. Luckily, I got the paint off and then had the art teacher (who I shared a classroom with when I taught special ed) paint our names so that they looked pretty. I'm waiting until after the baby is born to put her name on hers, just in case we change the name last minute, or she ends up being a boy, or something like that.

I wanted to add some lights & garland right above the stockings, but I haven't figured out a way to attach the garland to the wood there without it being noticeable. Any ideas? (I used tape to put the lights & garland on the banister, but it's hidden behind or underneath the banister.)

Also, don't pay attention to the crap on our stairs... Naomi can pretty much reach everything these days, so if there is something I don't want her touching, like our laptop, I put it on the stairs.

I've also started working on Christmas presents already (we're doing homemade gifts this year), which has frustrated Jacob, but he tends to completely forget about the gift aspect of all major holidays. Besides, I don't think he realizes how little time we really have. I'm due about 2 weeks before Christmas, so this baby could arrive anytime around the beginning of December, and once she gets here, we will be too busy and tired to be decorating or trying to figure out Christmas presents. In addition to having a baby, Jacob's finals are the same week as my due date, and before then, we need to get our house completely cleaned and organized and decorated and ready for the new baby. So there is lots to do!

We are having our own little Christmas here in Columbia this year, due to the fact that we'll have a newborn baby who I would like to keep here at home, and I am really, really, really excited about it! Growing up, my parents always tried to do our Christmas day celebration at our own house, and I loved it that way. I've always wanted to do the same once I had my own little family. It will be fun to start our own Christmas traditions and to mix-and-match traditions from both the Romney & Bartholomew sides. I'm also getting ridiculously excited about the food--I LOVE food, and I've been having a blast looking up Christmas recipes and making a menu for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I've already spent hours googling different recipes and bookmarking websites. It's going to be a delicious holiday!