Oh hey, Friday! | Five Family Thanksgiving Traditions

First off, thank you all SO MUCH for the sweet messages--texts, calls, emails, comments, etc.--about our baby #2 news yesterday!  We are so thrilled to be expanding our family and we already know this next baby is so loved by many!

Since I had some big news to post yesterday, I didn't get to link up with Astleigh at Hill Collection and Rachel at Floral and Fudge for their Thanksgiving traditions link up.  And since it's "Oh hey, Friday!," I thought I'd combine the two and bring you a list of 5 of my family Thanksgiving traditions!

1.  Travel to Ohio:  Before my dad passed away, my sister and I would head to Michigan for the Thanksgiving holiday every year.  Now that dad is no longer with us, Victor and I (and now Max) make the trip to Ohio every year to celebrate Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family.  We always drive, so it's a fun (albeit long) road trip.  Our road trips to Ohio carry their own traditions, too, so it's always a great trip!

2.  Thanksgiving lunch with my mom's siblings:  My mom is one of 7 kids, and 5 of the siblings live in the greater Cincinnati area, which makes for some great family get-togethers.  We usually eat at my Aunt Sue's house, and lunch is typically scheduled for 1 PM.  It's a potluck of sorts, with everyone bringing something to share.  My mom always makes a non-raisin dressing/stuffing and a veggie platter.  Uncle Charlie and his wife make some scrumptious homemade pies.  Aunt Sue makes the fluffiest mashed potatoes. Uncle Pat brings the turkey.  Aunt Rose brings her beloved applesauce, and her husband usually whips something delicious up, as well (his family used to own a restaurant and he's a fantastic cook!). We enjoy a big lunch, watch some football, and they choose the date that they will celebrate Christmas together (I miss celebrating Christmas with them.  The white elephant gift exchange is quite intense!).  The cousins play ping pong, and this year we might need to institute a dance party for Max.  It's always a joyful couple of hours spent with some incredible people.

Thanksgiving 2014 at Aunt Sue's

3.  Friday night dinner downtown:  This tradition began in 2008, the same year that my sister and I started celebrating Thanksgiving with our mom.  The day after Thanksgiving, there is a big tree lighting ceremony on Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati, and the restaurant Palomino has great views of the tree.  My mom makes a reservation there every year, and we enjoy a delicious dinner, followed by a stroll through Macy's and a trip outside to see the tree and all the other excitement that goes on on the Square--live music, ice skating, food trucks, etc.

Palomino 2014 (this is not the big Fountain Square tree...lol)

4.  Making a pumpkin roll:  This isn't necessarily a tradition yet, but I'd like it to be.  I LOVE a pumpkin roll, and I have found a fabulous recipe for it.  I haven't made one in 2 years, but this year, my sister and I promised to bring one to our family's Thanksgiving lunch, so it's time to get messy!  I think this will be fun to do with my kids once they're older, as well.  I will post the recipe next week!

source.  This link goes to the recipe I use, but I'll post again next week!

5.  Avoid Black Friday shopping:  Don't get me wrong, I love a good deal.  But I don't love crowds. Or feeling rushed.  Or being pushed and shoved.  Or waiting in long lines.  I've never gone out shopping on Black Friday, but I imagine it to be like that episode of Friends where Rachel and Phoebe help Monica find her wedding dress at a discount dress shop and they need whistles to find one another/alert that there's a problem.  That's the stuff my nightmares are made of, so I steer clear. My sister and mom sometimes go out if they have something specific they're looking for and know it's on crazy sale, for instance, a Dyson vacuum.  One year, Victor and I went out to Starbucks, Target and Walmart in the afternoon, after the madness had died down, which then prompted Victor to purchase a couple of TVs for his office.  But otherwise, we stay farrrrr away.

This would be me.  Hiding in a clothing rack.

I love traditions, even if those traditions include not doing something!  What are your Thanksgiving traditions?

Linking up with:

Astleigh at Hill Collection

Rachel at Floral and Fudge

Karli at September Farm

Amy at The Farmer's Wife

A special announcement...

photo by Dottie Millwater Photography

Yep...you saw that right.  We're adding another superhero to our squad in May 2016!

We are so thrilled to be expecting baby #2 in the spring!  This baby is due on May 26, 2016.  Max was due May 25, 2014.  It seems as though God wants us to have May babies!  Max was born a week early, though, so he should turn 2 before his brother or sister is born.  But I suppose it goes without saying that we will have one big birthday party for our two littles in years to come!

So far in this pregnancy, I've noticed some similarities and differences in my symptoms compared to when I was pregnant with Max.  I know every pregnancy is different, so I will take this one at face value, but it's hard not to compare.

Similarities:

• Fatigue.  I was SO TIRED all the time during the first trimester with Max.  I was teaching kindergarten full time then, so I think it was even worse the first time around.  By the end of the day, I was a zombie.  After we announced we were expecting Max, my friend and coworker said, "I knew it. I kept thinking, 'Either Rachel is mad at me, or she's pregnant.'  I was so worn out by the end of the day that I was quiet and short-tempered...I just wanted to take a nap!  I even almost fell asleep at the dinner table once!  This time around, I'm still feeling the exhaustion, but it's different.  I don't feel persistently exhausted like I did in my first pregnancy. If I'm really tired, I can take a short nap during Max's naptime.  I was so tired on Monday afternoon that I willingly slept through the Ellen show...that's a big deal, guys!  If I'm in the house, I always watch Ellen!
• Spidey-sense of smell.  I've always had a very talented nose, but my skills increase ten-fold when I'm growing a baby.  Victor and his family love red wine.  I've never been a huge fan of it, but I would drink it occasionally (when NOT with-child, of course).  However, when I'm pregnant, I can smell a glass from across the room, and it's not a smell my nose appreciates. Also, the smell of tuna/other canned fish makes my stomach turn.
• "It's just emotion taking me over."  Do you remember that song?  I believe the Bee Gees sang it first.  Then Destiny's Child covered it (I love their version).  Anyway, I digress.  I feel all the feelings when I'm pregnant, which can be quite overwhelming when I'm already a sensitive person.  I cry at the silliest things.  I watch the Ellen show every day, and her little acts of kindness make me bawl my eyes out. A little boy who loves the James Bond movies got to meet Daniel Craig last week on her show and when he went in to hug Daniel, I started to well up.  5 Seconds of Summer's "Amnesia" came on the Ariana Grande Pandora station during one of Max's dance parties and I started crying while really listening to the lyrics.  I also might be a little irrational from time to time.  Sorry Victor.

Differences:

• Nausea.  I was not very nauseous when I was pregnant with Max.  I could get occasional waves of nausea, typically when I was a passenger in a car, but I wouldn't say it was a persistent symptom.  It's a different story this time around.  Almost every night (yes, night), I get hit with nausea right around dinner time.  That's why I'm not referring to it as "morning sickness," because it's rarely in the morning.  How disappointing is it when you cook a yummy meal for your family and then you can't even eat it?  I made salmon a couple of weeks ago and ended up eating cereal for dinner because I took one bite of the salmon and almost tossed my cookies. The other night, I went to bed fighting nausea.  What the what?!
• Heartburn.  Flippin' everything gives me heartburn these days!  I had some heartburn with Max, but I could usually pinpoint what caused it (Simply Lemonade with Raspberry would always cause it), it was later in the pregnancy, and it was pretty infrequent.  I don't think it bodes well for the remaining 28-ish weeks of this pregnancy that my heartburn is pretty bad this early.  Send me your TUMS coupons...I think I'm gonna need them!
• Still not in maternity pants.  This is a big win.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE maternity clothes. I vowed never to go back to regular clothes after spending 6.5 months in them last time. They're so comfy and forgiving.  I was regularly wearing maternity pants at 10/11 weeks when I was pregnant with Max because I was so bloated and uncomfortable that I couldn't bear wearing regular pants.  Not this time.  My box of maternity clothes is still in our back garage right now, and I don't have plans to pull it out until this bump pops.
• Cravings.  I haven't had too many.  Last time, I wanted Chipotle burritos all. the. time.  Not so much this time.  I saw Eugene Levy eating a bagel with cream cheese in a movie a few weeks ago, and it was ALL I could think about for 3 days until I went to the grocery store and bought two sesame seed bagels and some whipped cream cheese.  Other than that one incident, I basically want sweet stuff, mostly fruit.  I'm having a love affair with apples right now (sorry, watermelon).

Again, we are so very excited to become a family of four next year, and we are praying for a healthy baby and pregnancy.  We will be finding out the gender of this baby so we know if we need to stock up on girl clothes or if we're all set with Max's overflowing bins of outgrown duds.  We got all gender-neutral reusable baby items for Max (swing, bouncer, car seat, etc.), so we won't need to get much else in that department.  If this one is a girl and we end up having a third baby, we'll likely keep that one a surprise. But we're definitely finding out this time.

I don't think I'll do weekly "bumpdates" with this pregnancy, but I will update you on some pregnancy-related things from time to time.  I plan to share how we told our family next week!

A day in the life

I thought I'd do a little "Day in the Life" post so you can get a window into what a typical weekday is like for this stay-at-home mommy.  Some parts of this day (Tuesday, November 10) were very typical, and others were not.

  

My day started at 6:30 AM, when my alarm went off.  I reset it for 7, though, because I could.  I wanted to get up to do some barre3 since I've been having some sciatic nerve pain lately, but I felt that I needed another 30 minutes of sleep.  Then at 7:10, Max started screaming out of nowhere in his crib.  Like, one second he was asleep and the next he was screaming bloody murder.  I didn't want to run in to him right away (we cry it out--for a certain amount of time--in this house), but I watched and listened to him on the monitor to make sure he was okay.  He calmed down after about 5 minutes and then was asleep 5 minutes after that, so that was my cue to get up, get dressed, and get down to the basement. By the time I was downstairs, let the dog out, and was all set up in the workout room, it was nearly 7:40.

I did a 30 minute Standing Slim video, which I love.  One of the things I love about barre3 is how low-impact it is, but it's still so effective and I always break a little sweat (sometimes a big sweat).  

After my workout, I showered and got ready for the day.  It was supposed to rain all day, so I didn't bother doing anything with my hair (curly hair problems).  Then I went in to get Max up.

Lately, Max has been waking up around 3 or 4 AM.  He just rolls around in his crib and babbles to himself for about an hour, then falls back asleep.  This makes him want to sleep a bit later in the morning.  On this particular morning, I went in to get him around 9 AM, which is about 30 minutes to an hour later than he usually wakes up.  He immediately wanted to sit in the glider and read his little Bible.

After getting Max dressed, we headed downstairs for breakfast.  Victor was still home on this particular day since he had a morning court appointment and was leaving straight from home instead of going to his office first.  We got to have breakfast together, and Victor made us English muffin sandwiches with egg and cheese.  Of course I smothered mine in ketchup because it's my favorite condiment and it just made good sense.

I want another one of these right now.  So yummy.  Also, I can't say enough about Simply Heinz ketchup. All natural, simple ingredients.  Tomato paste, salt, sugar (not high fructose corn syrup), onion powder, etc.  We love it.

After breakfast (around 10 AM), Victor left for court and Max and I headed to Costco.  I really didn't want to have to go to Costco on a rainy day, but I needed to pick up some canvas prints we had made, plus we needed a bunch of other stuff.  So we braved the rain and headed into the madness.  About an hour later, we were heading home with all of our bulk purchases.

Once we got home, I unloaded the car and put everything in the kitchen, then started on lunch--peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and applesauce.  Max inhaled his (after a few minutes of protesting being put in his high chair), and while he was eating, I made some trips to the basement to put some of our Costco purchases in the basement fridge: 6 half-gallon cartons of milk, Eggo waffles, vegetable soup, and some party appetizers.  I had to make about 3 trips, and I don't like to do those when Max is not restrained in some way because I'm afraid he'll try to follow me downstairs (he can open doors) and he's not the best at navigating stairs by himself.

After lunch, Max and I sat down to watch his pre-naptime episode of Sesame Street.  At 1 PM, I took him upstairs, went through our naptime routine (close drapes, turn on white noise, change diaper, read book, sing, put Max and his 3 bedtime buddies + blankie in his crib), and grabbed some laundry to throw in the washer.  Max was asleep by 1:15 after some rolling around and rearranging his stuffed animals, and I got started on repackaging our meat and fish that I bought at Costco.  Costco days can be a little stressful and overwhelming if I have to get a lot of stuff.  It takes a while to get everything situated at home, especially when I have Max with me.  Luckily I got a lot of easy stuff done while he was eating lunch, so all I had left to do was the meat/fish and washing/slicing the berries.

  

This is what I started with, meat/fish wise.  Lots of chicken breasts and thighs, salmon, and tilapia.  I like to bag the salmon and tilapia separately to make it easy to grab meal-sized portions.  The chicken is easy--just separate the packages.  But the fish takes a bit of time.  After about 20 minutes, I had this cake pan loaded up to take to the basement freezer.

After arranging this stuff in the basement fridge, I grabbed the meat and fish I'd need for the week's dinners and brought them up to the kitchen freezer.  Then I washed and sliced the blueberries and strawberries I had bought.  I also did a load of laundry and prepared the dry goods for my overnight oats jars for the rest of the week.

At about 2:20, I was able to sit down and eat my lunch, read some blogs, and read a bit of my book. I'm still reading Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.  I'm almost finished and very enthralled.

The Ellen show came on at 3 (I never miss an episode, if I can help it.  She makes my day), and during commercials, I read more of my book.  Max was still asleep at 4 when Ellen ended, so I took a little nap until I heard him wake up at 4:30.  Max and I came downstairs, played with some Mega Blocks, vacuumed the rugs by the front door and back slider, then we snuggled up on the couch with some apple slices and Pete's Dragon, one of my favorite childhood movies.

Max lost interest in the movie after about 30 minutes (much to my dismay), so we went into his playroom to color, and he swept the room with his play broom.  Victor got home around 5:45, and I got started on dinner.  I am usually already making dinner by the time Victor gets home, but this night was a special exception. His parents, brother, and brother's fiancee returned from Portugal on this day and were driving home from the airport in New Jersey.  They were coming to our house for dinner and wouldn't arrive until close to 8 PM, so dinner was going to be about an hour later than we usually eat.  

I made spaghetti with meatballs, and while the sauce was simmering, I switched over/folded some more laundry, took out the recycling, and read to Max.  Victor and Max played a bit, too, while I was finishing up dinner.  Victor's family arrived around 7:30.  We ate, they filled us in on their trip, and Max showed off for our guests.  They left around 8:45 (it was a long day of traveling for them.  I give them credit for coming over for dinner.  I always just want to go straight home after returning from Portugal), and Max finished is bedtime bottle and Sesame Street episode (he loves the Street!).  He got to bed late due to our dinner get-together, so we had to postpone his bath till the morning.

After Max was asleep, I changed into my PJs and headed downstairs to blog and read my book. It was a long, productive day!

And there you have it!  I hope your week is going great!  And I wanted to wish a Happy Veterans' Day to those who have served or are currently serving in our armed forces.  Your sacrifices for our freedoms are endlessly appreciated. 

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Zara Baby Love

I never knew about Zara (the store) until I started dating Victor.  He and his mom would talk about it and shop there from time to time.  I think the first time I ever set foot in a Zara store was at a mall in Portugal.  There is a Zara at a mall near our house, too.  I love the European look of the clothes, and the baby/kids stuff is ADORABLE!  The in-store baby section is huge at the Portugal store, but at our local store, it's pretty tiny. We bought Max some cute pieces in Portugal when we were there last summer, one being the cute little bear hoodie he wore last weekend, which was featured in yesterday's post.  When I was searching for the sweater on their website, I found myself swooning over all the sweet baby boy stuff...and it would be rude of me not to share what I found.  

knit sweater with face print

bow tie top

check shirt  Max has a couple shirts like this.  He likes that it doesn't have a bulky collar.

reindeer sweatshirt

I love the way these European-cut pants fit Max's diaper-clad booty.  Seriously, they fit so well, and he seems very comfortable in them.  Plus, a lot of the pants for sizes 12 months and up have the little elastics inside so you can adjust the fit of the waist.

jeans with micro corduroy details

faux fur lined leggings

denim dungarees

trousers with braces

chinos with suspenders

leather basketball boots with fox design

leather brogue bluchers

leather fashion sneakers

pom pom cable knit winter accessories

Told you it was adorable.  Have you ever shopped at Zara?  Where do you like to find fashionable baby/kids clothes?

Weekend Happenings + some Holiday Card love

Happy Monday, y'all!  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!  It was a great one at our house!  We spent lots of quality time together and did some errand running, too!  Very productive!

We spent Friday night in with a roasted chicken and veggies dinner.  I haven't made a dish like this...ever...which is ridiculous because it's so easy and delicious!  I will certainly be adding it to our dinner rotation!  Victor and I watched a couple of episodes of Aziz Ansari's Netflix show, Master of None, and enjoyed it quite a bit!  We love Aziz's standup, so we were excited to see he has a new show.  Check it out!

Kenny had his regular dog food for dinner.  But lately Max has decided he must be hand-fed...a job he is happy to do!

On Saturday, Victor, Max and I did some shopping around town.  We went to World Market first to look at a dining table I saw in their circular last week.  Turns out the table wasn't what we really wanted, but we did stock up on lots of yummy snacks and treats.  I couldn't believe my ears when Victor said, "This store is pretty cool."  World Market win!  We enjoyed lunch at Qdoba, stopped in at Hobby Works for a bit (per Victor's request), then we headed to the AT&T store to get new cell phones. The upgrading process is so weird now...you do everything yourself once you get home.  No more transferring your contacts for you in the store!  Victor and I are both happy with our new iPhones (I especially love the battery life on mine).

Max fell asleep in the car on the way home...about 2.5 hours after he should've been asleep (he regularly naps from 1 until 3:30 or 4). I took him to his room to finish his nap once we got home and had to wake him up at 6:20 for fear that he wouldn't go to sleep later that night!  We enjoyed a bunch of random stuff for dinner (fishsticks for Max since it's a sure-fire winner for him and I just wanted him to EAT!), then I introduced Max to a favorite game from my childhood, Hungry Hungry Hippos. He did a great job playing and I think he got the hang of it! Looking forward to playing more with him in the future!

On Sunday, we had another delicious breakfast at home, and then we took a family walk to the Starbucks nearby.  It was a beautiful day--albeit a little chilly--and I'm so glad we got out for a little exercise!  Max walked the entire .8 miles to Starbucks and then fell asleep in the stroller on the way home.  Victor and I got to have some nice conversation while we sipped our little red cup concoctions (regular coffee for him, peppermint mocha for me).  It was a lovely family outing.

Pre-walk with our little bear cub.  Hoodie is from Zara.  We bought it in Portugal last summer, but here's a similar one.

This is what a Starbucks date looks like when you're parents.

Victor went out to spend time with a friend while Max was napping, and I did laundry and ordered our Christmas cards.  My favorite way to purchase cards these days is to find a cute design on Etsy for a digital file, then upload the customized version to a printing site to print at a low price (we send out a lot of cards, so the cheaper we can get them, the better!).  This year, I purchased my card design from Jamie at Pink Sangria Designs, and I couldn't be happier!  She has lots of cute products and is so great to work with!  Here are some of my favorite holiday cards she's offering this year.

Vintage Chalkboard Laurel

Glitter Gold Red

Peace on Earth Wood

She also has lots of cute birth announcements, save the dates, and a variety of invitation options.  I highly recommend her shop!  I printed my cards through Vistaprint (which Jamie recommends for her cards' specifications), and I have to say, their prices were pretty amazing!

The rest of Sunday was spent doing some cleaning, manicuring, and football watching.  We've got a pretty busy week ahead, so our low-key, family-oriented weekend was just what the doctor ordered! I hope your weekend was just as lovely!

Oh hey, Friday! | 5 reasons why the flip phone needs to make a comeback

Max never ceases to amaze me with his imitations of what he sees around him.  This is stuff he was never directly taught, but things he has learned through observation.  He puts his panda bear to bed in the family room by lying him on a throw pillow, covering him with a blanket, and giving him a kiss. He unloads the groceries from the grocery bags (although they don't always end up where they're supposed to).  He puts his water cup into the water dispenser in the refrigerator door (thankfully he hasn't figured out how to apply enough pressure to make the water come out...what a mess that would be!).  

One of my favorite things he does is "talk" on my grandma's old Samsung flip phone.  He opens it up, pushes some buttons, and babbles into the phone.  Sometimes he hands the phone to me or Victor to take a call for him.

It was an important call.

Seeing him play with this phone has made me sort of long for my old Motorola Krzr.  Y'all remember these? This is the one I had.  I actually cracked the front screen at one point, but it was NBD (that means "no big deal," Mom).

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Remember life before smartphones?  I got my first smartphone in 2011 (I was a little late to the game), and I honestly think I miss the easy-going way of life pre-smartphone.  I wish some people around me didn't have smartphones, either. Can you imagine what life would be like if we went back to flip phones? It's not that hard...just think back about 5-7 years.  Here are 5 reasons why I think we all need flip phones again.

1.  You will be more likely to have a phone conversation.  I rarely make calls anymore.  Most of my communication on my iPhone is done via text, email, or on social media.  I don't mind talking to some people on the phone, though, but texting is usually easier.  I've heard people complain about receiving phone calls when they prefer to receive a text, and it seems like voicemail is becoming obsolete.  But it's important to actually use your voice to communicate with someone.  Only communicating in writing leaves much to be desired and can lead to lots of misunderstandings.  Plus, when you get a call, you get to do that cool *flick* thing with your thumb to open the phone.  That alone is reason enough, in my opinion.

2.  You will be more likely to have face-to-face conversations.  Can you imagine how present you would be in your life if you didn't have all the bells and whistles of a smartphone at your fingertips all the time? For sure, there'd be fewer texting-related car accidents.  People would make eye contact. You'd likely have a nice conversation with your family at dinner (it makes me so sad when I see entire families on their phones when they're out to dinner together).  You might strike up a conversation with the person in front of you in line at the grocery store instead of scrolling through your Instagram feed for the thousandth time that day.  You wouldn't be tempted to catch up on Snapchat and Twitter and might instead make time to play a board game with your family or grab a coffee with a friend.  You'd likely be more active...and your neck wouldn't hurt so bad.

3.  Your phone would fit so nicely in your pocket/purse.  Who has the iPhone 6 Plus?  Or those huge Samsung phones?  How do you cram that in your pocket?!  Victor wants to get the Plus.  I don't really want to have to store something that big in my purse or pocket.  What if I need to take a teeny tiny clutch somewhere?  I doubt the Plus would fit, and even if it did, there likely wouldn't be space for other night-out essentials, like lip gloss, money/credit cards, and gum. 

4.  Your battery would practically never die...like, ever.  My iPhone 5 is over 2 years old.  I have to charge it several times a day because the battery life suuuuuuuuuucks.  I think I took for granted how long my flip phone battery lasted back in the day.  If I only knew...

5.  You won't need to pay an arm and a leg for your phone and its accessories.  These smartphones are expensive...and their prices are climbing by the day.  We've said goodbye to unlimited data, and with more and more social media options, our data is getting sucked up by the second.  Many wireless providers are getting rid of their upgrade options, meaning that you have to pay more money to get a new phone.  And if you want to make sure that your phone doesn't shatter or break the second it gets bumped the wrong way, you have to buy a lot of accessories. These new fancy phones are so darn fragile!  I dropped my first iPhone on the garage floor and the screen completely shattered.  It was so bad, I was being poked in the face by glass when I made a call.  $100 dollars and a new screen later, all was back to normal.  When I cracked my Krzr screen, it was just one simple crack, no shattering.  It didn't affect the function/overall look of the phone, and it didn't poke anyone.  If you want your iPhone to be protected, you have to get a big bulky case (let's face it, ladies, those cutesy ones we love so much don't do much to keep your phone from shattering) and a tempered glass screen protector.  That's at least $100 on top of the cost of your phone.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I love my iPhone.  I'm looking forward to upgrading soon.  I like having a reasonably sized, decent quality camera on me all the time, especially since I don't have a wonderfully nice real camera at the moment.  I enjoy not needing to sit at a computer anytime I want to research something online or read my favorite blogs.  Virtual coupons on my phone help me to save money on errands.  However, I think that all of these distractions at our fingertips are really detracting from our roles as human beings.  We're no longer present in our lives; we're more concerned with what's going on online than we are with what's happening right in front of us.  It's a goal of mine to disconnect/go off the grid more and be present with my family and friends as much as possible.

Linking up with Karli at September Farm and Amy at The Farmer's Wife for Oh hey, Friday!

In defense of the early "Christmas-ness"

Now that Halloween has come and gone, you've no doubt seen Christmas items taking over your favorite stores.  Heck, some stores started displaying their Christmas merchandise even before we donned our costumes and binged on candy.  Many people out there are bothered by the hyper-promotion of Christmas and the early appearance of ornaments, tinsel, and holiday-themed packaging on store shelves. Some people cringe when they hear Christmas music playing on the radio or in stores before December 1.

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I get it, I really do.  Why are we pushing items for a holiday that's 2 months away when there are still two fairly popular holidays to celebrate beforehand (Halloween and Thanksgiving)?  While I understand that Halloween isn't everyone's favorite cup of tea (certainly not mine), Thanksgiving seems to typically be a pretty popular holiday among the masses, a holiday full of tradition and family togetherness.  Surely we should slow down enough to appreciate the significance of this holiday and hold off on the Christmas bonanza until the end of November.

Honestly, though, I get more bothered by seeing Valentine's Day stuff out before Christmas has come and gone than I do by seeing Christmas out before Halloween.  I love Christmas.  Everything about it. I get the warm fuzzies whenever I hear the sound of jingle bells or Christmas songs.  Listening to Christmas music always puts me in a good mood, no matter what time of year I listen to it.  One of my favorite things to do at Christmas time is drive around to look at Christmas lights.  Everything about that time of year just screams peaceful, cozy, and joyful...to me, at least.

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I know that our society is very caught up in the commercialization of Christmas.  I might be a little guilty of that, too.  I'm very excited to introduce Max to the magic of Santa and his elves (although I might not do the Elf on the Shelf thing...all my mom needed to say to my sister and I when we were growing up was "The elves are watching..." and we'd straighten right up.  No physical evidence of elves was needed to convince us).  While I'm Catholic, I'm not incredibly religious and rarely go to church, but I know I want my kids to grow up with a religious influence in their lives, so it's important to me to teach my kids the story behind Christmas and the "reason for the season."  

But regardless of whether we're too commercialized or out of touch with the true meaning of Christmas, I can't shake the sense of joy I feel anytime I think about Christmas and all it entails: the music, the lights, the glitter, the trees, the ornaments, the cards, the presents under the tree, the mistletoe, the food, the family, the togetherness, the spirit of giving, the traditions...I could go on and on.  I welcome anything that brings out that sense of joy and wonder in myself and my family, so I say: gimme all the Christmas goodness, as early as you want!

So if you're one who dislikes the early onset of Christmas (and you are fully entitled to your opinion), perhaps try to look beyond the merchandise in front of you and allow yourself to feel the wonder, joy, and cheer that Christmastime should instill...even though it's a few months early.  Your disdain for the premature displays and festive music isn't going to change the fact that it's already out there.  Just try to enjoy it.  Let your heart get warm-fuzzies as you daydream about cozy nights by the fire in December with your tree twinkling, watching your favorite Christmas movie with loved ones.