Christmas Spirit

The day after Halloween, a neighbor behind us put up Christmas lights....and lit them up!!

The day after Thanksgiving, the entire neighborhood had been ignited with Christmas lights.

I didn't have Christmas Spirit last year. I just didn't have it in me. It was a struggle to buy a tree, string the lights, decorate it. I put my Christmas knick knacks up and cut some greenery for the fireplace mantle, but it was so mechanical....I did it for the kids really.

This year though, I've got that Christmas Spirit....hot diggity dog.

One thing I refuse to do is buy Martha Stewart's Christmas issue magazine and follow her painstakingly detailed instructions on how to make ornaments and cookies and such.

One year she had an article about making sparkly animal ornaments. It seemed nice and on the cheap. I made templates and began tracing the animals.

But when it came to cutting them out....it took friggin FOREVER!! I decided to complete a few by dipping them in the white sparkles just to get the full effect of my efforts. I have to say that this project bit the big one! Not only were there sparkles everywhere and all over me, but there were so many little nooks and crannys to cut that I lost patience and by the 5th animal, threw everything out.

Another year, she had instructions on making ornaments out of old Christmas cards. We didn't really get that many....we had just moved here and I hadn't had a chance to send everyone our change of address. It wasn't worth making ornaments out of two measly cards....plus we didn't have a tree because we moved into the house on December 23rd.

This year will be different though. I'm going to splurge on buying evergreen swags to drape on the front porch banisters....I'll place greenery and candles on the mantle....and I'll spring for a nice tree topper.....finally, I'll buy some nice table centerpieces.

And then, I'll regret every last bit of what I've done because it'll have to be all cleaned up and packed away.

Ugh.....