Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Tell Me Something Good....

Alright, blogworld. It's confession time. I am going to share with you one of my deepest, darkest, best-hidden secrets.

I.
Love.
Christmas.
Now, this may not seem to be that big of a confession. In fact, most of you have probably seen me during the holidays and realized that I'm a fan. But I don't just love Christmas like the normal Joe Schmo on the street loves Christmas. Heck, I don't even love Christmas like your basic Christmas-enthusiast. I'm a FREAK when it comes to Christmas.
I can not get enough Christmas. If I could buy a new Christmas decoration every single day from the time they put them out in the stores (this year it was in late July that I first saw them) until the after-Christmas sales were done, I would STILL not have all the lovely things that I want to decorate my home (and the homes of others if I ran out of room).
And don't even get me STARTED on gift-buying. I LOVE finding the perfect gift (or 10 of them) for each person on my list. My budget is the only thing limiting my gift-buying excitement.
Then comes the wrapping. For those of you who don't know, I even create a theme for my wrapping each year. All of my presents coordinate in very specific ways and are wrapped painstakingly while I watch all my favorite Christmas shows (which I own on DVD, thank you very much). I'm even thinking of taking my wrapping-coordination one step further this year and making each of my "variations" within my theme represent a specific house to which that present will go - to make the in-car sorting easier as we visit all 10,000 houses in our big Christmas circle. Paper A - Munner's, Paper B - Mama's, Paper C - Cindy and Rick's, Paper D - Ricky and Pam's, etc. Are you jealous of my insanity yet?
Of course, then you must take into account my craftiness that's a little over the top on the average Tuesday. It gets a bit out of control around Christmas. I love to "fake knit" (this is what I call my Knifty Knitter) things for people, scrapbook things for people, and make EVEN MORE decorations for my house. I even hand-make Christmas cards for more than 100 people each year. Poor Drew puts up with all of my crafting as long as I follow the "no glitter" rule and lets himself believe me when I say this is a way of saving money on decorations and presents ~ when we both know the REAL reason I do this is because I LOVE IT. :)
And Christmas music... there are NO WORDS to describe my love of all things in the Christmas music category. And my dear husband actually joins me in this obsession. Our Christmas cd collection is almost as big as the entire rest of our cd collection. We own all the compilations - old standards like Nat, every cd Bath and Body ever put out, basic Carols, wonderful choirs, instrumental, King Singers (listening to that one as I type this for you)... the list goes on and on. I will admit that some of my Christmas music love is the love of mocking the HORRID remakes of Christmas standards. NEWSFLASH: Not every single song needs to be popped-up or Mariah-Carreyed. This is a FACT, not my opinion!!!
And the worst part of my sickness? Even though you'll hear me mock the fact that stores are now putting Christmas stuff out in late July (I swear there was an entire quarter of Hobby Lobby dedicated to Christmas before they even put out the Fall decor), because I DO understand that most people don't share my obsession for this holiday in quite the same way, in reality, it's the first week of November and it is KILLING ME refraining from going into the garage and bringing in the Christmas decoration boxes. I'm already sneaking in Christmas music when no one is around to witness it, making out my present lists for everyone, planning my wrapping theme, and taking stock of the house and where my favorite decorations will go.
Afterall, how can you possibly think that twenty-five days is EVEN CLOSE to enough days to enjoy all my favorite things on Earth? Each one of my decorations has a memory attached that makes me feel like I'm a kid again getting wrapped up in the excitement. Every song makes me think of Christmas Eve in candlelight service and then driving to Munner's to yack it up and have fun with the whole family. All the Christmas smells take me back to waking up at dawn on Christmas morning and "sneaking" into the living room to see what arrived while I slept. The twinkle of every light reminds me of lying on the living room floor with Mama - all the lights out but the tree, looking at the reflection of the tiny lights multiplied ten-fold in her beveled, layered mirror. Christmas is home, love, warmth, joy, family, memories, and best of all, the most blessed birth of a baby that ever happened (and YES, I mean even more amazing than Tucker's - who knew).
So if you come to see me after Halloween, don't be surprised if it takes me a minute to answer the door. I'm just hiding my decorations and muting the Christmas Carols to continue hiding my secret from you.
L&S,
Leslie

4 comments:

Brandie said...

I'm with you on the Christmas list! And I usually have my cards already set and ready to go...but I'm a NUT about Thanksgiving and I hate that Halloween decorations are recycled for Thanksgiving, so I decorate ONLY for Thanksgiving with a few sprinklings of halloween goodness.

Natalie said...

I have been enjoying your blog with all the photos of Tucker. In fact, you inspired me to create one for our baby girl coming in January, www.atlantacaldwells.blogspot.com.
I have been itching to put up the Christmas decorations. I have been using the baby coming as an excuse to get Christmas shopping started early this year. So far, Aaron is going along with my insanity. Pregnancy buys you a lot of leniency :)

Leslie said...

Natalie ~ Glad you found me on here and glad to have a way to follow your life as well. Congrats on the baby! That's so exciting, and YES, pregnancy can get you a long way in many, many situations. :) haha!

Michelle said...

Okay, this must be genetic! I too ADORE the season.....the gift of the universe to me is that Magic 96.5 has ALREADY begun playing all Christmas music! It is more than delightful....and since it is on the air I don't even feel like I have to hide it! And, I must confess, my love of the season overcame me yesterday when we were out of school and I did, indeed, begin decorating...I only got 1 room done, but OH, the JOY!!!!!! I know it is a sickness when all of my decorations aren't "beautiful" by magazine standards....I like to describe it as "Christmas throwing up" all over my house! Isn't that a festive thing to think!!!!! Love you!!!!!