Day-co-er...

I'm laying on the love seat with the laptop enjoying my newly decorated Christmas tree. We have had our Christmas tree up since late last week, but due to what has been deemed the "Christmas Tree Crisis of 2008" (I'll save it for another post), it has yet to be decorated...until tonight.

Tonight, I hurried to get dinner on the table and get the mess cleaned up, while Cary did other last minute things to ready us to decorate the tree. After dinner, Kate was on a blanket in the floor behind me, and Kennedy and Jude stood in front of me nearly panting with excitement as I opened the boxes of Christmas ornaments. Thank you, LORD, for plastic! Each ornament was handed to either Jude or Kennedy and they stood patiently waiting to hand them to their Daddy so he could put them on the tree. They did hang a few themselves, but Cary did 99% of it. Let me just say that I think it's awesome when parents let their children decorate the tree all by themselves and all the ornaments are hung on the bottom third of the tree and there are 7 of the same type of ornament on one branch. However, I am just not there yet. Maybe one of these days I can let go of my perfection enough to allow it, but it's not happening anytime soon and I know it. Hopefully I can get there one day.

We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I later realized that I didn't hang even one ornament on the tree. In years past, that would have really upset me. But I so enjoyed watching my precious husband and children do it. It was much more enjoyable for me to watch them than it ever was when I did it myself. I never would have imagined.

Our tree is covered in mostly red, white and clear or transparent ornaments. It has been that same color combo for years and we love it. I'll post pics when I find the drive and energy to pull them from the camera. However, the pics I post will be limited. Why? Every year, beginning around Thanksgiving, we begin taking what seems like hundred of pics of the kids doing any and everything we can think of. We do this for an annual photo book for the grandparents. We compile the pictures into a 5x7 soft cover photo book on snapfish and write a story to go along with the pics. The grandparents love their books and every year my mother tells me the same thing when I ask her what she wants for Christmas...."just get me my book and I'll be happy." So, I can't post all of the GREAT pics we took during the decorating because the grandparents read the blog and I don't want them to see the pics until they see the book. I did, however, take some pics of just the tree and I will share those with you.

Stockings: well, there's a story. Where do I begin? Cary and I picked solid colored stockings for ourselves our first Christmas together. His is blue, mine red. Then Kennedy came along and since I am such the perfectionist, hers had to be a solid color too. We found a cream colored velvet one with snow flakes embossed into the velvet...perfect. Jude - again, it had to be solid because everyone elses was, right? He got green. Well, then there's Kate and I found a pink one that would work, but I knew better than to buy it because Kennedy's favorite color is pink. The breakdown that would have followed my purchase was not worth it. So, I brainstormed. What in the world are we going to do!?!?!?! I was really a little stressed about it. Freaky, I know. Then, Southern Living to the rescue. Why didn't I just go there first! It's second only to the HOLY BIBLE in the life of a good southern woman. I found this fabulous idea. In lieu of stockings, they had personalized metal buckets. How cool is that!?!?! Okay, you're thinking I'm weird...and I'm okay with that. Anyway, long story short (too late), everyone in our family is getting a metal bucket this year. I think it's the start of a fantastic tradition. I found a website called bucket-outlet.com (yes, I'm serious) and ordered the buckets! They should arrive here this week. I will decorate each with greenery and some ribbon and hang them on the brick behind our wood stove until they are filled by Santa on Christmas. As soon as I get them done, I'll take pics and post them. I'm SO excited about my buckets. Side note: I shared all of this with my mother-in-love. She said when our kids go back to school after Christmas and someone asks what they got in their stocking....LOL! Oh well, it'll give 'em a good story to tell about how crazy their momma is.

So, while I type, the kids are asleep and I'm listening to some Christmas tunes on the satellite and sipping some coffee with pumpkin spice creamer. Andy Williams is singing Sleigh Ride right now...sigh...I love this time of year and sharing it with friends and family.

Side note: if you haven't figured out the title yet, it's the southern pronunciation of "decor." (o: I hope you enjoy your decorating as much as the Condrays!