'Tis the Season!

Funny, Thanksgiving hit and I've been noticably absent from the blogosphere ever since. :) Not surprising though, really, considering the time of year. I don't know if this is true for everyone, but it certainly is for us: December is the busiest month of the year. We have something scheduled for nearly every single day/evening between now and New Years!

I absolutely love Christmas. Fortunately for me, Dan does too. We went and chopped down our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving and decorated it that evening. We dragged out all our Christmas music, lights and decorations and put them to good use around the house. Our little apartment is now adorned to its fullest capacity. :) We even have all our Christmas presents wrapped already and under the tree.

I have very dear friends who keep festivities and decorations to a minimum at Christmastime, in order not to lose sight of the "true meaning of Christmas." I have nothing but respect for them and for the convictions they hold; I think that Christmas is best kept in a way that is meaningful to the one keeping it. For myself however, I have always felt that since Christ is of course the true meaning of Christmas, and Christmas is His birthday, what better way to honor Him than by truly celebrating for all you're worth? And I don't mean partying like crazy or just goofing off; I mean singing along to Christmas carols on the radio at the top of your lungs and making your home beautiful with lights, garland and wreaths; I'm talking about wrapping presents in gorgeous paper and ribbons and yes, putting up a spectacularly stunning Christmas tree. I don't see all these things as a buy-in to the "commercialization" or "secularization" of Christmas; they are just what they seem: a celebration of one of the best things that ever happened to mankind. The angels came to the shepherds and said: "We bring you tidings of great joy." Joy! The hallelujah-shouting, awe-inspiring, wonder-compelling, laugh-out-loud kind of joy. It's intoxicating and that's one of the reasons I love Christmas so much. :) Not to climb up on my soapbox or anything. . .

Anyway, getting to back to what we've been up to since the last time I posted: We spent Thanksgiving with Dan's family, including his aunt, uncle, cousins and grandma down in Salem, Oregon. My pumpkin cheesecake was very well received and was therefore a tremendous success. ;) The day after Thanksgiving saw us headed to the mall "bright and early" at 8:30 a.m. for our Christmas portrait appointment--to which event I practically had to drag my reluctant husband, who hates having his picture taken. (You can't tell from the pictures though--they came out good. :)) We then abandoned the mall since most of our Christmas shopping was already done and who wants to deal with all the crowds, anyway? As I mentioned above, we went on to "funner" pursuits: We headed over to the Christmas tree farm and spent a very long time looking carefully at nearly every tree and finally selected a beautiful noble fir to grace our living room. After that hot cocoa was in order and I trimmed the tree while Dan covered our very small deck railing with about a million Christmas lights. That Sunday was the first Sunday in Advent so we spent the evening reading our Advent devotional book, drinking egg nog, admiring the tree, etc. *grin*

This past weekend was similarly busy: we spend Saturday running errands and tidying the house and I spent a portion of the day baking goodies for our young marrieds' Sunday School class Christmas Party that evening. Sunday we celebrated Dan's brother's birthday with the family and then came home for another Advent evening. That is one thing I have especially loved this year: having Sunday nights set aside for Advent and quiet time alone with my sweetie. :) We watched "It's a Wonderful Life" on Sunday night too. No matter how many times I see that movie, I never get tired of it. We realized after it was over that it was the first time we had ever watched that movie together, so that made it specialer. ;)

Speaking of movies, last night we went and saw "The Polar Express" with Dan's little brother. With only one disclaimer, I would say it is one of the sweetest kids' movies I have seen in a very long time and I highly recommend it. The disclaimer is that if you have anything against Santa Claus or children who believe in him, you might want to pass this one up. Since I think Santa is kind of cute (*grin*), I thoroughly enjoyed the movie--it was an entertaining story and beautifully animated. You should go see it. Unless you're one of those Santa-hating people. ;)

And there you have it! Between having company for most of the month of November, preparations for Christmas and of course work as usual, I have been too busy to blog. I'll try to do better over the next few weeks, however. I've missed all of you (even the non-commenting readers: you know who you are). ;)

Oh, one last thing: Hawaii photos will be up finally, probably tomorrow night. Sorry for the long wait and thanks for your patience!