"Christmas is here again...

...stand up and cheer again!" That's a line from one of my favorite Roger Whitaker songs. My parents have made me weird in so many ways, like a love of Roger Whitaker, for instance. I even saw him in concert when I was in college. What early-twenty-something kid gets excited about that? Exactly. And I won't even discuss my love of John Denver right now. Saw him in concert, too... but that's another blog on another day.

I listen to Roger Whitaker's Christmas album every year as I decorate the tree. Have to. I've gotten flexible on when the decorations go up, when they're put away, where they go, and even when I start to listen to Christmas music... but it's always gotta be Roger during tree-trimming. Just as it always was when I was growing up, complete with a couple skips in the record. Except my copy is CD now!

Roman helped, of course. He has gotten the biggest thrill out of going through our boxes this year. He pulls everything out lovingly, often saying "Oh, it's beautiful, Mommy!" or some such exclamation. He laughs at his old decorations that we've saved, such as the handprint wreath ("what's that supposed to be?" he asked), or the framed & decorated picture of him in reindeer antlers that was our first official gift from him.

We have gotten the tree up and gone through 2 of the 4 boxes of decorations. I am actually cleaning out and donating some this year, and many won't make it out of the box because of either lack of horizontal space or lack of safe place away from grabby infant hands.

Even our poor tree cannot be fully enjoyed this year, as anything dangly or lit up seems to catch Charlie's eye. Roman also is entranced with the tree, constantly pulling ornaments off & moving them to different places. There will be presents under there soon (something else to keep away from Charlie's exploring hands & mouth), as we are going out Friday night to do the bulk of the kids' gift shopping. I ordered a couple things online today and I'd say probably within the next week, given some uninterrupted time (maybe this weekend?), I will have most, if not all, of the Christmas presents taken care of. Christmas cards were printed today, now I just have to get envelopes and address them. Moving right along, as 3 windows have been opened on the advent calendar...