Monday, November 5, 2012

It's Beginning to (Not) Look a Lot like Christmas

With Halloween out of the way, Christmas commercials everywhere you look on TV, and snow falling and/or blowing pretty much at some point every day, it's no wonder I'm itching to prep for the holidays. Since we're not going home this year (super duper sad faces!!!) I want to try extra hard to make it feel Christmasy at our new house.

Unfortunately for me, my husband (and sister...and parents...and friends) have this weird notion that the first weekend in November is too early to decorate for Christmas. I know, right? How unreasonable! He said I should try to wait until after American Thanksgiving but that's AGES away!! Boo!! I promised there would be a plethora of pouts until our decorations are pulled from the closet and I can deck the house out. You've all been warned!



We did volunteer to host Christmas dinner for my fellow Southern co-workers who aren't going home for the holidays, so we'll get to have a holiday meal surrounded by good people and good times. It will hopefully take some of the sting out of not sharing it with our families for the first time in our adult lives.

While we're on the topic of Christmas, a few of you pointed out that while our care package Wish List  post was nice, you also wanted a list of ideas for Christmas gifts for us. We are appreciative of the sentiment and tried very hard to come up with some things, but we really aren't lacking for much because we over-packed when we came up. (Still a bone of contention!)

Something we have been considering is the Phillips goLite Blu Energy Light to help us through the dark winter months. Although we are skeptical of the regular so-called "sad" bulbs, we've been reading up on how blue lights can help with a variety of things including better sleep, mellowing out of mood fluctuations and increased attention/ability to focus. The research and reviews seem to indicate that this is a better alternative than "happy lamps" and regular super-bright bulbs, so we've been talking about trying it since Costco's shipping rates seem to be pretty reasonable (under $10 for something is pretty awesome up here!).

Other than that, maybe a space heater for either the bedroom or the living room? Or a digital thermometer for cooking (since I've a tendency to not be able to gauge a rare roast vs. a medium-rare roast) and ours did not survive the move. Something to fight off zombies for when they take over the Arctic? Oh wait, that's just my neuroses coming out...

That's about it...if I think of more, I'll let you know! Not very exciting, I know. Sorry, we're pretty boring people!

As for us, I ordered our Christmas cards a couple weeks ago and managed to get a bit of our shopping done (kids done, now on to adults!). The downside to online shopping is you're relying on the shipping company to get things right - did they wrap it? did they take the price off the invoice in the box? did they put the right gift tag on the right gift? etc. etc. etc. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone really wants over-priced crackers to be mailed home so online shopping is the only option! :)

Either way, Christmas is definitely in the air!

-L

11 comments:

  1. I want to put my tree up too and people keep telling me i have to wait til American thanksgiving! I have to get my suitcase out of the crawl space this week so I might get the decorations out while I am in there ;) I will probably wait to put them up until I get back from Calgary tho! (so a week from today haha)

    -Kirsten

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    1. Yeah, but you're also the person who has all her Christmas shopping done before Halloween...so I'm kind of surprised you don't already have your tree up! ;)

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  2. We're not going home for Christmas either! :( So this year we'll finally buy a tree and get our decorations going. Don't forget vitamin D too. I've been taking loads and it's been helping with the weather.

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    1. We've been popping vitamin D every day - so far we haven't noticed anything yet, but we'll keep at it.

      Yay for your first tree in BC! :)

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    2. How much do you take? I've been taking about 5,000mg a day. It takes a couple of weeks to kick in, but I definitely notice a difference.

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  3. In my ABSOLUTE DEFENSE, I recommended waiting only until THIS weekend to start stringing up the holiday decorations. None of that after-American-Thanksgiving poppycock! (Also. The mystery of EVERYONE CAN COMMENT BUT YOU, YOU ARE FOREVER BARRED MUAHAHAHA is solved. Blogspot just hates Chrome. OF COURSE! :/ )

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    1. Or...I could just wait for you to come here and decorate with me?? We can serenade Jeff with loud carols and fill the house with the smell of baked goods!!

      Sad faaaace.

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  4. I love this blog I am trying very hard not to decorate too early!

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    1. Thank you and welcome to the blog!!!
      I'm still really itching to decorate...I have been stealthily trying to pull out small decorations here and there in preparation!!

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  5. Historically I don't decorate until after my birthday (Dec 13th)...because didn't want to think about Christmas until AFTER my birthday. But then again it might have just happened because growing up we had "real" trees.. so it was just logical to put it up around that time (only last about 2- 2 1/2weeks!). This year I will be decorating a bit early... but I will be heading home to see family and friends!

    Just wait until after Remembrance day... don't need to wait until after American thanksgiving! One more week.. you can DO it!!!

    :) S

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    1. That's a great rule to wait until after Remembrance Day - plus it sounds so much closer than the end of the month!!

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