last christmas i gave you my heart

every year, i find myself in denial over the holiday season.  like, it always feels like we JUST had christmas.  of course, it's also because i'm getting old and crotchety and time always flies by when all you want to do is to slow it down a little.  but really though, i totally bury my head in the sand in disbelief - and then i end up with post-christmas letdown when it's over.  because i couldn't get it through my thick head that it was time, and then it whizzed by before i could enjoy it.

but not this year.  oh, no.  this time, i decided i was going to embrace the yes-it's-already-here festivities wholeheartedly and really make the most out of these few precious weeks of holiday bliss.  usually, we don't get our tree until maybe a couple of weeks before christmas, and always during a week that the teen is home.  but because of how the days fell in the calendar for 2011, we found ourselves gearing up to pick out a noble fir on the very first weekend of december.  if we'd have waited till the next time the teen came home, it'd only be about a week before christmas.  and that would be unacceptable.

the teen is always the one who makes the selection from the tree lot.  she swears she gets a vibe from the perfect tree, and we're not about to argue with that.  so while i went out for a grueling 7-mile run, the hub took the girls to home depot (aka "daddy's favorite toy store," according to the bean) and brought home a ridiculously ginormous 8-footer.

we have an awesome cornucopia of novelty ornaments.  some are souvenirs from trips we've taken, and there's always one with a family photo from that year's christmas card shoot.  a bunch of them were gifts from MIL, and every year we each get to choose an ornament, usually from the hallmark store.

i'd been collecting these for the bean since her 2nd christmas, but when i bought the "4" i found out that they've decided to discontinue this series.  "there's a 5, but we're all sold out," the cashier added helpfully.  eff, man.  now i'm going to have to chase that damn ornament around all the local hallmark stores?  bah.

you can guess who chose these, right?

and i love the sentimental ones, like these.

even the dog has one.

when we were all done with the fun ornaments, the hub hoisted the bean up onto his shoulders to place the star on top.

i even got around to stuffing and stamping our annual cards for all 85-ish folks on our list.  i decided to personalize it a little and actually handwrote something on each of them.  and i ordered these cute return address labels along with the cards.  i love these, although neither they nor the actual cards ended up printed full-bleed like i wanted.  stupid "safe line."

this is how the tree looks right now.  i still can't decide whether or not to add some of the shiny red and silver balls that we put up every year.

yay, it's wonderfully festive at the wan house these days.  bring on christmas!