'Tis the Season

When asked what their favorite holiday is, most people will tell you Christmas.  I personally prefer Thanksgiving or the 4th of July.  Christmas is the last holiday on my list for reasons I can only tell my therapist.  I'm a Grinch.  All is not lost, though.  There are a few things that make me jolly for the holidays, along with reasons to leave the boxes of lights and garlands in the basement. 

Jolly: I love the lights.  I drive by Temple Square on my way home from work every night and just that 10 seconds looking at the lights brings me great joy.  Our neighborhood should rename our street to Christmas Lane because everyone has lights on their houses.  Sometimes JW and I will drive the long way home just to enjoy the lights in the neighborhood. 

Grinch: G will not put lights on our house.  Apparently this is a provision in our marital contract. So I do it every year.  Except, I am too chicken to climb the ladder to the highest pitch on the roof, so I just put lights on our bushes and around the windows and porch.  Last year half of the lights blitzed mid way through December and some jerk kids put our lighted reindeer in a precarious position.

Jolly: I LOVE glass ornaments.  The old world vintage kind with Santas, teapots, the pickle, icicles, etc. My entire tree is decorated with vintage glass ornaments, many of them nearly 100 years old.  My tree sparkles. It makes me so happy.

Grinch: I have a curious two year old.  Vintage glass ornaments just seem like a bad idea.  So I bought a box of shatter-proof (read: plastic) ornaments from the Costco knowing that JW would not be able to resist touching every "bulpt" (bulb) on the tree.  Now my tree has no soul.

Jolly:  This year I bought a pre-lit tree with zillions of white lights after more than 10 years with an old 6 ft. cheap-o delux tree that I spent 2 hours stringing 50 sets of lights to every year. Pre-lit has changed my life forever.

Grinch: Why didn't I do that 10 years ago?


What's your favorite holiday? 



Grandma, 1930



Grandpa, 1956

My cousin is in the process of scanning a box of old photos from my mother's side of the family.  He sends an email or two every week of each scanned treasure.  Here are two of my favorites so far, capturing my Grandparents {my mom's parents} in their youthfulness.  At first I thought this was Grandma sneaking out on the rocks to watch Grandpa fish.  How sweet.  Then I noticed there was a 26 year difference in the photo timeline.  I never knew either of them in this life, but I imagine they were wonderful people.



The Holstee Manifesto

This little manifesto is making its way around the internet and I must say, I like it.  I kind of want to figure out how to paint it on an old piece of salvaged wood and hang it on my wall. There must be a way...

Good morning, Winter. 

The first real snow storm of the year is always a merry event for me, in theory.  I always picture myself lounging around in my pajamas, sipping hot chocolate, watching movies all day.  Then reality hits - read: I have a two year old.  Forget about lounging around watching movies all day.  If I'm watching anything it's sound bites of Thomas and Friends, Super Why and The Cat in the Hat (sound bites = JW knows he can watch his favs through Netflix.  Five minutes into each show he decides he wants to watch something else.  It makes me totally mental.).  And lounging?  Come on, now.

JW was pretty excited about the snow.  He wanted to play outside all day.  I told him once he was dressed we could go outside.  Getting dressed was easy enough for JW, except he decided he was going to take a fashion note from Papa Bear and wear his sandals with his socks.  I refused to let him play in the snow in his sandals and he refused to take them off.  We made a trip to Payless and bought JW a pair of snow boots.  I thought he'd think they were cool until he refused to put those on as well.  This might be a long winter.