Metal Meredith

1. Air Conditioning
2. Computer
3. iPhone (aka my teeny tiny computer)
4. Burts Bees Lip Balm
5. Ice Cream
6. My Bed
7. Sunglasses
8. Ear Plugs
9. Homemade Brownies
10. Cheese

Henry:

Vivienne:

I hate that I am already pondering Christmas, but I am. I have lists made of possible gifts for the kids. I have ideas and budgets and bookmarks online. What I don’t have, is gifts for the 4 people that have birthdays the third week of November. Either I am already done on November 1st or I do the last minute scramble. Its pretty obvious which one this year will be.

The real problem this year is watching the money and deciding what’s more important, that early morning “WOW!” factor or staying in a decent price range that doesn’t make me cringe when I think of it later. Or worse, when I am packing up those toys in 6 months and donating them due to lack of use. 

I am going to let you all in on something about my love of holidays. I just don’t love them for the reasons you think. I love to clean up after them.

There is something fun about decorating the house. Putting out fake cobwebs, our hanging ghost. Attaching the vinyl stickers to the storm door, hanging skeletons on the fireplace. I adore the ultimate in Christmas decorating, the moment when you unveil the completed tree. I love to hang the stockings and the wreath on the front door.

However, nothing compares to that moment when it is time to take it all down. For me, it is about one minute into the morning after. 7:01am on November 1st, you can bet that I was packing up those skeletons and hiding the plastic pumpkins for another year. I sat all Halloween day, staring outside at the leaf collection, rain drenched cobwebs on my bushes, dying to just rush out there and put them all into the trash.

That might make me odd, but there is something no nice about ‘back to normal’ after adding all the extra clutter. (I say extra, because let’s face it, its just another thing on the pile at this point.)