Haul out the holly

I know I said Halloween was my favorite holiday but I do like Christmas. I like decorating (I prefer snowmen to Santa) and wrapping presents (little known fact I did a speech/demonstration on how to wrap presents in 9th grade) and seeing Christmas lights at night, Christmas songs and carols (there is a difference) and the smells of the season.

Since our last visit we've skimmed over Thanksgiving. It was anticlimactic. I was dreading spending it with my extended family and then when we didn't I sort of felt a tiny (very tiny) loss. Not necessarily that I missed them or anything it was just a little off.

We went to a family wedding prior to Thanksgiving. It was interesting. I know I'm a procrastinator but this bride put ME to shame. Two weeks before the wedding we got the invitation. While they were supposed to be getting their pre-wedding pictures made she had to go to the bridal shop to pick up her veil and shoes. The ceremony was very lovely but it took awhile for the reception to get underway and the kids got pretty antsy. It all turned out alright though.

It's funny because as much as we like getting out of town and visiting family we always enjoy coming home. Is that a sign of old age?

I'm getting excited because we're having a grown up Christmas party in a few weeks. We don't have many grown up parties so it should be fun. I guess grown up is rather an oxymoron because basically I get trashed and act like a fool--not very grown up. You always wonder about these things too because of the mix of people you invite. When we first started having our "house" parties when we moved into the house it was a core group of friends and my brother/sister-in-law. I've added a few people here and there and this year invited a few new faces. I hope they'll come and have fun. I'm not really a very good party planner so I hope people don't expect too much! ; )

I'm in a good spot right now. Do you ever have those cycles? It's not that any one wonderful thing has happened, it's just that as I look around I realize I have a lot of good things going on in my life and not many things that are pissing me off at the moment.

I think what started it was being at the wedding and looking around at all the other married couples. For all of our ups and downs I really think the Hubs and I are overall the happiest married couple I know. He's my best friend and though we (like everyone else) get on each other nerves from time to time I really like him. Sometimes you look at couples and it seems like they're just together out of habit or necessity and that's sad.

I also realized, after seeing and being around other kids for that event, that my hellions aren't THAT bad. They're sassy but they're really smart and affectionate and they have spunk.

Warm fuzzy feelings all around ; )