While the Merry Bells Keep Ringing

It's officially the holiday season.

Did you know that I love this time of year? Because I do. I started listening to Christmas music on Halloween night as we drove home from celebrating at my parents' house. I have close to 2000 Christmas songs on my iPod now, and I'm almost through them all. This is awesome, because I'll still have time to go back and listen to all of my favorites again before the season is over. Thank goodness for commute time and long flights.

We just finished decorating for our second year in our house. Our main floor is basically one big room, and when you first walk in the door, you can see around 20 Christmas trees. Some are just little foil things, some are Charlie Brown trees, but two are actual 6 1/2' lit-up extravaganzas. One is the fun tree, which has a lot of Disney stuff, Batman, Christmas Story, Gremlins, etc. The other is our "adult tree" (say it out loud), which is more classy (hehe). We tried to keep the front half of the room (the more formal space) a little less character-driven and more classic. The other half is all fun and games, though. And our big shelving unit/room divider from Ikea is bursting with fun Christmas things.

On the outside of the house, we bought two new strands of lights this year, so it's brighter than last. We still have our big Mickey wreath over our garage, but we didn't put out the deer that my mom loaned us last year. They led to too much deer fornication for my taste. Poor Rudolph.

We've already put a good dent in our Christmas movie collection as well. And with Thanksgiving out of the way, we've already started the holiday cooking/baking season.

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house, and it was great. Very calm, lots of good food, and family. I made stuffing from homemade focaccia with Italian sausage. It may have been the best stuffing ever, even though I accidentally put in too much broth and it was a little mushy (stupid test-run was too dry).

Just over a week ago, I had to go on a last-minute work trip to New York, and while I was there, I had one night to go see a show. I decided to see A Christmas Story: The Musical, because why not? Also, I love being there at Christmas and seeing limited shows that aren't necessarily going to be there the next time I go. Unless the show is Elf. I NEVER want to see Elf. Not The Grinch, either. But White Christmas was amazing, so I hoped for the same in A Christmas Story. It didn't disappoint. I had a hard time getting into the adaptation at first, but by the end, I was loving it. I felt like a kid again, seeing the story for the first time. And the dad from The Wonder Years was in it, so I REALLY felt like a kid again. Even though I got my ticket only a couple days before I went, I was able to score the best seat in the house. Row H (that's the 8th row) and dead center. I could see the spit flying from the actors' mouths. I could see every bead of sweat on the Old Man's face as he danced with a chorus of leg lamps.  It was fantastic. I bought the soundtrack while I was sitting in JFK, waiting for my flight home, and I've already listened to it a handful of times.

I was also able to get some new Hanukkah decorations in New York. They're hard to find in Utah, but not so much in New York.

We started a tradition a couple years ago of going to the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork with Teri and Bristol. We haven't planned our outing for this year yet, but I'm excited. I can't imagine the holidays without them. They've also been our Walking Dead buddies lately. Well, Teri has been. Bristol comes sometimes and plays his DS the whole time as he slyly peeks at the screen until he gets too scared. I love that show, and having others that yell at the TV with me is pretty fun. Stupid winter hiatus. Fun fact: by the time the season resumes after this Sunday's mid-season finale, we'll have a baby. Unless she's really late. But she won't be.

We also have a tradition of having an annual Christmas Piano Party. This year is going to be great, because we'll have an ACTUAL PIANO. Well, that is if the movers get it to us in time. It was supposed to arrive last night, and the mover was late to pick it up from the shop, so nobody was there. It will now supposedly be delivered later this week. I'll be on another short business trip, so I'll hopefully come home to a piano. It's an antique - from 1929. That's older than BOTH my parents. I had it completely refurbished. The insides are all fixed up, all new keys (the old ones were all chipped and some were missing), the pedals will work better...it'll be like new but will have the great sound of the antique soundboard. Nothing beats old pianos. Someday, I'll get the woodwork restored as well. It was black at one point, but a previous owner painted an ugly oak color over it. It needs to be black again.

In prep for getting the piano, we finally painted over the hideous brown wall on our main floor. That thing was awful. The previous homeowners sponged it themselves (pretty sure) and they didn't tape off around the edges, so it was really messy. There are still traces of brown all around the edges. Blech. But it's now a nice, calming gray. A black piano would look really good next to it.

The next home improvement project we have, which will need to be done during the holiday season, is prepping the nursery. We've already refinished an old dresser that my sister gave us, so now we need to paint the walls and do some decorations. Little girls need Batman posters, right?

We have just over 2 months left. Possibly less, if she's as early as I expect. This is our last Christmas without kids. We're already making a stocking for the baby, because we're making new ones for ourselves this year, and we figured it would be a waste to not just get it done now. The dorkies need stockings, too. They're like kids, but they're not KIDS. It's going to be really fun/crazy/awesome to actually have a little human to celebrate with next holiday season. She'll be almost a year old at that time. She'll hopefully be walking. We're going to have to put gates up around the trees, because she's going to try to play with the ornaments. Hopefully she's as good at listening as the dogs are. So far, they've been pretty good about it.

In case I don't blog again before Christmas, which I won't, merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Have the best Boxing Day! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, an amazing Halloween, and I hope your New Year is full of awesome resolutions that you don't intend to keep!

Happy holiday to you!