holiday cheer

I know this is shocking, but I'm not a big decorator. It's where the realist in me comes out (and one of the few times she ever comes out): why would I go through all the trouble of setting all kinds of things up to just have to take them back down again? (It's why I also hate bulletin boards, but those are worse because you waste paper doing it.) So, for the most part, what is up in January is what is up in June. December, obviously, has a slight exception. Slight.

We don't usually put our tree up until sometime in the late teens. This is partly because we will only get a real tree, which means you have a limited window of safety. And it's partly because we're rather busy, and doing the tree doesn't get priority scheduling during the early part of December. Because I don't like decorating the tree. Which is the whole point.

Today I started wrapping. This is pretty early for me, but we're doing Christmas with my parents and brother in a week, and if I'm going to wrap their stuff, I might as well wrap other gifts while I'm at it. I'm mostly done shopping, just need a few little fillers here and there. (And a good present for my bro-- what I had gotten was for mailing, but it turns out we'll be seeing him, so now I'm looking for a better open-in-front-of-us idea.) But it's not the wrapping that is getting me into the spirit; it's my old, contact papered Christmas Cards.

Today we hung my Boynton Christmas Cards all over my kitchen cabinets. It is that action-- completely frivolous and so unlike me-- that turns the corner for me during the holidays. I love Sandra Boynton. I've only bought Boynton Christmas Cards since I started buying cards. Sadly for me, she no longer creates cards, which puts me in a bit of a pickle in terms on sending cards, but luckily for me, I loved her cards so much that I saved one every year and covered it in contact paper. And hung it up around my dorm room... and now my kitchen. I think I've gotten all I that's out there from eBay, which is probably good since the kitchen is overwhelmed as it is. But she's just so funny, and her ideas make me giggle... that even I go through the trouble of hanging them for 1 month every year.