trying not to rush the fall....but i can't wait

I am so enjoying the fall, the leaves are beautiful and the air smells crisp and clear, i love it. The weather is a little harsh on my system but it is worth it. All i want to do is curl up on a couch with the perfect fleece blanket and settle in with my book and a great cup of cocoa.

I was pretty excited last week as they were filming a Christmas movie down the block from where we live, they had the houses decorated with lights and covered in snow,snowmen in the yard and big red bows everywhere. I just wanted to sit in the house across the street and watch but I couldn't as the road was blocked off, so i drove around the block a few times to watch the lights, I am sure I looked suspicious but I didn't care. i did try to call Kate because she would have appreciated it as well. it put me in such a holiday mood, I am so ready for Christmas to be next month but I know I need to relax and enjoy the fall so that is what I am trying to do, but it is not easy, I tell ya.

I love Christmas, not just the day but everything leading up to the day, the whole month before, I love the decorations, the music, the atmosphere, pretty much everything. I love the kids Christmas plays, Christmas eve service and most of all Christmas eve at my Nanny's has been my favorite tradition forever. For as long as i can remember we have been spending Christmas eve at my Nanny's house, the whole family squished into one tiny house, approx.60 people , we sing Christmas carols and eat tons of food that my nanny , mom and aunts have been working so hard on the whole day.And we always have my dads smoked salmon which is so good. It is a tradition worth keeping, i love it. Then afterwards I would always leave a little early to go back to my parents where I have the whole house to my self, my mom has the whole house looking perfect, my dad has the Christmas music blaring constantly usually Kenny and dolly, and I would just sit in the living room, enjoying the atmosphere, so relaxing and exciting, magical... even with no one around it feels perfect.i love this moment, for years since I could drive i sneak back to the house and have this fifteen minutes to myself. Then like I was five I would jump off the couch and race to the Christmas tree, to open the gift from my auntie genie and uncle Bob, it is always such a sweet gift, But before I could open it, there was one rule, I had to just sit there on the floor beside the tree, enjoying the lights and really looking at the decorations and just enjoying how pretty it all was because tomorrow it would be over ,the excitement, the beautiful decorations, all of the beautifully wrapped packages would be torn open and it would no longer be about anticipation and enjoying the season. Tomorrow everyone would be tired and ready for lots of naps, it's not bad that it is over , but if we don't stop and enjoy these little moments it all goes by so fast, chaos and craziness, and we miss the best parts and it is a tradition I don't want to give up, my fifteen minutes. My parents have a way of creating this atmosphere at Christmas, throughout the whole season really,this is what has created this holiday creature that I am, I can't contain myself and it is because of them. I even plan a special trip home to decorate their house with them, it's just something I can't miss.So if I am driving you all nuts because I want to start celebrating in September, send your complaints to them!

I can remember so many Christmases , memories that are so special, so special. A few days before Christmas one year my dad took Cole and I shopping for mom, he said we were going shopping for a few little things he needed to pick up and mom was scrubbing the house down because christmas was almost here, dad took us to jowseys furniture store where he picked out a beautiful grand father clock for her, Cole and I were so excited to be part of the surprise, they were going to deliver it that day and we wanted to be there when she got it. Now the best thing about giving my mom a gift is she bawls like a baby and every body bawls just the same. As we walked in the door the delivery men were already there and moving the clock inside the house, but my mom wasn't with them , we went in the kitchen and my mom is up on the counter top washing the cupboards and she would 't look at us, dad said surprise and went over there and sure enough she was sobbing her heart out and my dad helped her off the counter and just hugged her, and we all killed ourselves laughing because we knew she would love it and we knew she would cry. I t was fun to be apart of something so sweet.

My mom would spend most of December baking and not just for us, she baked for friends and family and usually just before Christmas she would have to bake again because usually the nanaimo bars were gone about the 20Th and we weren't even close to making it to Christmas eve . I love baking with her every year, it just isn't Christmas unless we spent that time tearing up the kitchen with flour and sugar, and dads Christmas Cd's playing, the mess we make is ridiculous but it is so much fun. I remember one Christmas we were just kids and I think I was 10 so Cole would have been 8, he was so excited the night before that he could not sleep, he was in my room trying to wake me up every hour, till I finally made him sleep in my bed, but at about 3am, he had enough he wanted those presents, so in his little squeaky voice he told me he had to go and he marched himself down stairs to the stockings in front of the fireplace and then at the top of his lungs starting yelling, sissy look, Sissy look at this and this sissy look at this! I had to shut him up before mom and dad woke up , he was so excited , there were these snow racers beside our stockings, one in pink and one in blue , so I told him it was the only present he could have right now , and not to touch anymore but i figured it was okay to sleep on the couches because Santa had already been there, so hopefully I could keep Cole calm until at least 7am, There happened to be a TV mini series made of harry and the Henderson's on only that night, which I loved and never ever could I find it again, that kept him till about 6 where i couldn't keep him calm anymore. so I woke up mom and dad and made coffee for them, which they had to remake, and Cole was tearing open his stocking like a crazy kid yelling at the top of his lungs.

The whole month of December at our house was a blast, we would watch tons of Christmas movies and mom would mark all of the Christmas shows in the paper so we didn't miss the classics like Rudolph and frosty, dad would buy the biggest tree that would go from the bottom of the stair case up to the second floor in the entrance way, but it was never full enough so he would drill holes into the tree and stick extra branches in making it the best tree ever, we would decorate and mom was the foreman sitting on the couch telling us where we missed spots, I am pretty sure after we went to bed dad fixed the tree from our crazy decorating.but it was always such a fun night, virgin chi, chi's, Christmas music and lots of people decorating and we didn't just decorate the tree, it was all the door ways the stair case, the windows the fire place, the kitchen if we had enough left over, it was so beautiful when we were done, our very own little wonderland.

now I love Christmas and my husband was so sure I would get up and open my stocking before morning that he slept on the futon beside the tree our very first Christmas we were married,

we also have the best mornings, I wake him up all thru the early morning hours to see if he wants presents yet, he would say all thru the night, but after 1am it is technically morning so ....i am like a little kid I can't wait either, he was probably right to protect the stocking! And he sends me back to bed till about 6, yes I am a child, but we have the best mornings together.!!! I Love it!!!!

as I said I am trying to focus on fall but it is really hard, right now!!! I love a great family Christmas!!!