it's the most wonderful time of the year

We finally made it to December 1st! The day before Thanksgiving we were driving around town and Jason was yelling at all the Christmas decorations in the parking lots, "You have to have Thanksgiving first!". As noble and endearing as his sentiments were, he scarfed down his Thanksgiving dinner so we could hurry up and get to Christmas. So, since Thanksgiving was so early this year, we made a deal: we would wait until December 1st to decorate the house for Christmas. The poor boy barely made it. He was begging me all week to get out "just a few things...." Yesterday started off the Christmas season by going to Kohl's and buying a new piece for our Christmas village collection (we got the post office, we already have a church and a gas station, for some reason, this order makes perfect sense to Jason). We then got our holiday dose of orange chicken at Panda Express. And finally, it was time to trudge through the wilderness of the Wal-Mart parking lot to chop down our tree. (Someday, I will ride a horse drawn sleigh through the snow, in the forest, drinking hot chocolate, singing carols, and we will actually chop down a live tree.... it will be great.). Jason and Darren sawed off the stump when we got home and we set it up inside. No fights. After decorating and having dinner we bundled up and headed downtown for the holiday light parade. For 2 hours we sat on the curb, freezing, waiting for the parade to start then watching the floats. Who knew there would be 74 entries? We only made it through 40 before the kids had had enough. All in all it was a good day. Now our house smells like pine and we have fabulous decorations everywhere.