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