Christmas Vacation

Christmas is in full effect at my house.

We put the tree up on Saturday, and I'm embarrassed to tell you the other holiday decorations have been up for a couple weeks.

It all started the weekend I got home from being in Iowa.

I bought a few Christmas things while antiquing and I thought, I'll just keep these out since it's almost time anyway.

Then my brain said to me, maybe I should put up my Santa's since it seems strange to only have a few decorations out.

And Santa's really don't look good without stockings around the fireplace...yada yada yada...vicious cycle...everything's up...Christmas in full effect.

Decorating the tree with the kids is really fun, sort of.

I'm a visual person, I like ornaments spaced just so, I like glass ornaments, I like kids not to touch them, I wish I had velvet roping so I could rope off my tree.

Alas, that's not realistic and kids like to help and it's part of making holiday memories, 

so Hubs tells me.

So I let them put up everything on their own and then I rearrange everything after they've gone to bed that night.

I figure that's their penance for making me put up their homemade preschool ornaments on the tree.

We also watched 'Christmas Vacation' which is a holiday tradition at our house.

Us and every American family.

I realized something while watching this last time.

If I hadn't married Hubs or had kids, I would be just like the yuppie stuck-up neighbor next door to the Griswold's.  

I'd be Margot, aka Elaine from Seinfeld.

I'd judge and watch in horror at the crazy antics of the family who lives next door.

Everything in my house would be white, and clean, and my freezer would never know things like chicken nuggets or frozen waffles.

My pillows would be perfectly karate chopped down the middle and my kitchen cabinets would look just like the ones in 'Sleeping with the Enemy'.

That would be...bad...really terrible.

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