You guys can choose to choose to jump in and start anticipating with me… or you can wait until the last minute. But I want every day, every minute I can get to soak it up and be excited!
I baked this yesterday to start getting revved up for holiday baking. It was delicious, and is even better chilled!
Here’s the link for the recipe, if you want it: Spiral Apple Tart via Family Fun.
I also tried to convince my parents to buy a new Christmas tree for the living room yesterday. Since my dad bought a new TV, he had to rebuild the entertainment center to fit it. Which means it takes up at least two more feet on that side of the room. Which obviously encroaches on the area where the Christmas tree has gone every year since I can remember. Well, it’s not going to fit this year. Other members of my family seem to think we can “squeeze it in there” but I know it won’t happen. SO. After realizing that we had a CRISIS on our hands, I decided to do what I do best: creative problem solving.
We have talked for YEARS about wanting a new tree. I guess the only people having this conversation were me, myself, and I, because no one else seems to remember. My plan was to put the old artificial tree in the front room and decorate it with all silver and gold ornaments and white lights. It would match the front living room perfectly and would look gorgeous out that window onto the neighborhood. (It has always bothered me that you can’t see a tree from the outside of our house.) Then, we could get a new, TALLER tree for the giant vaulted ceiling in the den. Bigger tree = more room for ornaments (we never put them all up) = grander, more exciting decorations = more fun for older kids.
My DREAM would be a tree like the one in the ballet The Nutcracker, that’s big and tall and beautiful and makes you feel like it’s the grandest thing you’ve ever seen. I restrained myself for this project. I took some measurements and decided that a 7.5 – 8 ft tree would be perfect, with a maximum diameter of 60 in. I also drafted a rearrangement of furniture in the living room, requiring the movement of four pieces and the temporary removal of an endtable for the holiday season. I proposed my grand solution for this utterly perplexing Christmas decoration CRISIS when my parents got home.
Well. It looks like I’ll have to wait for my own house to have my dazzling, grandiose, magnificent masterpiece of a Christmas tree. They adamantly refused to buy a new one. Sad day.
My next proposition is going to be to build a platform for the current tree to add height from underneath. We’ll see how that goes. 🙂 My other thought was that I bet I can find people in Beaumont that want someone to come decorate their trees FOR them… I might have to draft up some business cards here pretty soon!
Anyway, in honor of the start of my holiday season, I’ll leave you with an image of one of my favorite depictions of the nativity. May we all remember that the reason for the holidays is to anticipate and celebrate when Love came to earth!
chronic forgetter of grace 