Stinkin' pilgrims

My favorite time of year.... sort of

Today we undecorated from Halloween. It's sad for me because I love Halloween so much but.... if we don't pull them down now... well.. I might lose my mind. Thanksgiving is only 19 days away and we're hosting for my father's side of the family (we haven't actually invited anyone yet, but it's on the list for tomorrow) - that's roughly 20-25 people depending on who comes. We love hosting big family holiday dinners but of course it's a lot of work. And then right on the heels of Thanksgiving dinner, our annual Christmas party is always the first Saturday in December (the very next weekend) which is.... oh holy Hell... 28 days from today.

A few years ago we also hosted Thanksgiving and we didn't start decorating for Christmas until the next day because we didn't want to have the house all decked out for Christmas when it should be crawling with pilgrims - but alas that mad rush in the following eight days while we were both working full time nearly caused a divorce..... so...

From that point forward we decided to skip right over the pilgrims. Who likes pilgrims anyway. Stinkin' pilgrims. (okay I'll admit to a little guilt about this. My paternal grandma who was an amazing woman and an amazing cook held Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner each year and her house was totally decked out in pilgrims and cornucopias and all other appropriate type Thanksgiving stuff for Thanksgiving and tons of Christmas stuff for Christmas (she even hung different pictures on the walls for each event) but... I just can't live up to her example and I've decided I just have to get over it.)

So we skip the pilgrims and move straight from skeletons and graves to trees and wreaths and lights. The family will have to adjust to a Christmasy Thanksgiving dinner. I promise I won't play a single Christmas carol during dinner. So today Brad took down our graveyard and eyeball lights and started to put up our house lights for Christmas, while I did similar things inside. The Christmas decorating process in this house takes a very, very long time because frankly I'm a little insane about it.... but I do love how my house looks all decked out for Christmas.

Camela