Christmas Spirit...

Getting into the Christmas spirit is a tricky thing. Sometimes its as easy as a snap of the fingers (or the jingle of sleigh bells) but sometimes that spirit is just not so easy to capture.I remember when I was younger & I would just wait (for what seemed like forever) counting down until it was time to put up Christmas decorations - lights inside & out, the massive tree that would barely fit through the front door, arranging the figurines in the nativity set just so. My family would always go to a local Christmas tree farm to have our tree freshly cut. Since we had a vaulted ceiling in our living room our tree was usually between ten & twelve feet tall so at the farm we were usually the last to get off the wagon waaaaay in the back (where the trees were to big to fit in anyone else's house.) There was always the great debate whether to get hot chocolate or hot apple cider to keep you warm while our tree was getting the needles shaken out. Then it was the monumental task of getting the tree in the house, lit, & ornaments put on the tree in one day so Sunday could be spent concentrating on decorating the rest of the house.

I miss those days. It just isn't the same now. I know part of it is growing up. Everyone looses there ability to believe in the magic & the wonder of Christmas to some degree as we grow older. Now it seems more of a hassle. We have to carve time out of our busy schedules, try to fit time in to decorated the house & enjoy the lights & sounds & festivities of the season. I know I feel this way (or have in the past few years) because of working in retail. This will be my 8th holiday season working in retail, and every year I say this is going to be my last. We (like a lot of retailers started playing Christmas music November 1st. Yes, that's right. Hadn't even had time to recover from the Halloween party the night before & all the sudden Christmas is here smacking you in the face. Our Christmas display (trees, ornaments, decorations etc) in the store was up in September!!It is sad that I am so burned out & tired of Christmas by the time December actually gets here (the people, the music, the traffic every where) that it makes it difficult to enjoy the holiday season.

This year my family has decided on a scaled back version of Christmas - less gifts = more time. We still plan to spend Christmas morning together just as always. We still plan to have our Danish Kringle that we order each year from Wisconsin. We still still have a hunt for the pickle ornament on the tree. Maybe this year since we wont' have to focus so much of our time on shopping for gifts I can actually go back to enjoying the other sights & sounds of the season.

A girl can always dream, right?

What good did worrying ever do...

So I have been a horrible slacker. Obviously it has been a great while since I've contributed anything. I apologize. Life is kind of up in the air right now. I feel as if the wedding plan has come to a stop. It seems that we are down to definite decision making time about some things & they just aren't being made. Major decisions like the honeymoon, the cake, the invitations. These are the ideas that we've tossed around & investigated & discussed for a while but we can't seem to ever make a decision. I know we have about 6 1/2 months to go. I have this feeling that I will blink & that's going to fly by & we will be no further along than we are now. And that thought just scares the daylights out of me. I plan to make a much better effort for all the planning now, I have no choice. Wish me luck!!!

I'm also a little stressed about the selling of my place right now. My future husband & I are going through what I assume many people go through, especially those who wait a little longer to get married. We have both been out on our own. So in turn we both own our own homes. We have discussed many times that we wouldn't trade our life experience for anything. I am glad we will be 27 & 28 when we get married. We both feel that for us personally there is no possible way that were mature enough to be ready to marry when we were younger. It is great for some people, I am not disputing the fact that some people marry younger & it works out great - just not for us.

I know we will get through this & everything will work out in the end. We had both just hoped & prayed that we would not have to carry both mortgage payments, that my condo would sell before the wedding. As of now it appears that we may not be so lucky. It will be fine, it will make us stronger - or so I keep telling myself. My fiance is the optimist. Me, not so much. I am trying my best to have faith that it will all work out but I am a worrier. There is no point in denying it. It is the truth. I worry, I stress, I think, I analyze.

Thank you Mom for passing that trait on to me, I appreciate it!!