Christmas celebrations begin

The day after Thanksgiving means only one thing to the Parker children.  No, it's not Mommy goes shopping. 

It means it's time to decorate!!!!!

I am so bummed every year because I envision how the Christmas decorating will be. In my head it goes something like this:

*Christmas music is playing and we all are singing joyfully as we decorate the tree. 

*The children are being very careful not to break ornaments or step on and bust Christmas lights. 

*The Christmas lights are easy to unwind with no tangles and they all light up after they're plugged in. 

*We laugh and giggle as the kids each hand me a decoration to place on the piano. 

*Each child waits patiently for me to go in their room and help them decorate their own tree. 

*We order pizza because that's tradition and then we have Christmas cookies for dessert. 

*Everyone pitches in and the mess is cleaned up super fast and the house looks beautiful. 

*We all sit together and enjoy the beautiful sights of Christmas while listening to the carolers singing outside the window while snowflakes begin to fall. 

**REALITY**

The kids grouch and beg as soon as Maynard walks through the front door for us to start decorating. Maynard wants to sit awhile and recoop and maybe have a little supper before the chaos begins. So talking about supper brings me to the fact that for some crazy reason I already had leftovers warmed up and ready to eat. Somehow I failed to realize that pizza was always our day after Thanksgiving tradition meal. I was reminded by Josiah as he sneered his nose when I plopped more turkey on his plate. 

As I began to clean the kitchen you can hear Maynard bellow out, "Ok, ok. I'll start dragging it all out. Just stay out of the way."

The kitchen is cleaned and now the living room is destroyed. The kids were throwing tote lids around and gingerbread decor was going every which way. I got so overwhelmed that I just had to sit down and watch the chaos unfold. 

Somewhere in the mix Chritmas music began to play. 

Maynard started setting up the tree. He would call out which color he needed and the kids would hand them over. Usually all they had to do was just lift up their foot and pull one out from underneath. 

The fussing and feuding was increasing and I may have wondered aloud, "Why does it have to be this way every year?  This is why I always dread decorating for Christmas."  I began to fluff and spread out the tree branches to fill in the gaps. Maynard actually got me on video singing my own version of words to the current Christmas song playing in the background. I'll be honest, it wasn't a very festive tune. Ha 

The lights were put up on the tree and the kids began to decorate like crazy. I just sat and watched and refereed as needed. Amelia worked tirelessly. Titus worked pretty hard, but soon lost interest. Josiah was only concerned with his tree in his bedroom. I had asked him to wait patiently and I would help him decorate it once we finished the living room. Unfortunately, he couldn't wait and kept coming back and forth whining about his lights or ornaments. Then he was upset because his tree looked dumb and on and on. 

Then Amelia started in on wanting her tree done, but it was getting late and I had to send them all to bed and promised we would finish decorating their trees in the morning. 

Everyone went to bed and I put the house back together. I straightened up the tree, but really didn't have to do too much. The kids didn't do that bad of a job. I mainly just had to spread the candy canes around and add the ribbon and tree topper. 

There were exactly 9 candy canes on one branch. 

All the earlier chaos seemed to make up for the serenity that now filled the house. It's nothing extravagant or elegant, but it was a family effort and so that makes it even more beautiful to me. 

Oh how I long for a mantle to decorate, but until then the piano will do. 

The next day I helped Amelia decorate her tree and I decorated my own little primitive tree for my bedroom. 

Josiah decided he liked his tree after all so I didn't worry with his. 

Since I was feeling festive on Saturday, I decided to follow a recipe and bake cookies from scratch. I was so pleased with how they turned out. It made the kiddos happy. It's almost magical to eat cookies while staring at Christmas lights.  

Miss Priss posing in front of the tree on Sunday morning. 

A tradition I didn't forget his year was the chocolate advent calendars. 

I realize this is a horrible picture. Titus wouldn't act right and Amelia was very sick that morning. Nonetheless, they were very excited to have their advent calendars. 

We've also attended a few Christmas plays. We like to attend as many of those as possible.   

The first one we went to was actually before Thanksgiving. It was called "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

It was a short, but cute play. I was surrounded by the red hat society. If I only knew ahead of time then I could have dressed appropriately. Ha ha

The second play was held at our library on a Thursday night. I picked the kids up from school and we went straight to Frisches for supper. I had free kids meals to redeem. 

 After supper we went straight to the library. 

 Before the play started they were serving hot chocolate and cookies while a band played Christmas carols. Titus sat right down in from of the drummer and stared him down the whole time. 

At the beginning of the program the actors played a game with the audience. Titus was asked to volunteer to help. 

It was a really cute play with a modern day twist on the Classic Christmas Carol. 

Maynard was working late and we missed him, but we had a really good time enjoying the holiday festivities. 

Then a few days later we attended a Widows Banquet held by First Pentecostal. It was so special and sweet to the widows. They had a dinner and then the widows each got gifts and had a chance to testify. I could tell that it meant the world to these widows. We sat around and sang Christmas carols. It was just a special evening and I am so glad we went and look forward to going again next year. 

I guess that's it for now. We still have lots planned and things are starting to get crazy and hectic. I will update as often as possible. 

Enjoy your Christmas and don't forget to make new memories this year even if they don't turn out exactly as you had envisioned!!