Day before Christmas

Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house, decorations were flying around.

This is a family tradition about 5 years old. The crazy pace of everything else between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I find having the tree up early on to be a stumbling block. Since I wasn't ready for Christmas 5 years ago, I didn't finally get the tree put up until the morning of Christmas Eve while the kids napped. That afternoon we spent time putting up the ornaments and other tree decorations. It was such fun and they "helped" since then we put the tree up on Christmas Eve. This is also easy to do since my pine allergy keeps the real trees in other homes.

I just realized that I left out one of my absolutely favorite Christmas episodes...from M*A*S*H.

Daddy started me watching MASH years ago. Of the many Christmas episodes, my absolute favorite is "Death Takes a Holiday." I don't love it for the main story line, trying to keep a head injury case alive so his family doesn't live with his death on Christmas. The side line of Charles, the fancy chocolates, and the gift that is to remain anonymous.

Giving to those in need is something we are trying to instill in the kids. Their school helps with this through out the year. Every class has service projects for those in our community and others around the world.