Paul came home early from work yesterday (he usually gets home around 7pm when he works at Kennedy Concrete) so that I could go for a run because it was unseasonably warm out. He got home around 4:15, which meant I was able to run three miles before it got dark outside. As I was jogging I passed many people putting up Christmas lights and doing other decorating outside their homes. When I got back we had dinner and then started our Christmas decorating. The kids were so excited to play with the Little People nativity set, read Christmas books, listen to Christmas music, etc. because those goodies are stored in the basement for eleven months of the year. Paul worked on assembling the tree and putting the lights on the tree while I did other decorating around the house. This morning after breakfast the kids helped me put the ornaments on the tree. It is quite obvious that young children helped because in some places near the bottom there are quite a few ornaments clustered together in a very small space. This was the first year though that all three children understood how to actually hang an ornament and not just lay it on a branch. I do love Christmas music, so I am really enjoying hearing the kids playing those cds. Paul plans on putting up the outside lights tomorrow. I have finished most of my Christmas shopping (about 3 people out of 30 left to buy gifts for), and I also have most of the gifts I have bought wrapped, which is a great feeling. The package of presents that I mailed to Turkey already arrived there safe and sound, much faster than usual!
I did our Christmas cards much earlier than usual because of specials that Shutterfly was running this summer. Usually I do a photo card plus a letter, but this year I selected a tri-fold card, and the larger card meant there was room for paragraphs in addition to photos so I wasn't planning on writing a letter in addition to the card this time. If I was making the card right now I would have some additional information to include (for example in the card I mention that Nadia learned to ride w/o training wheels but that also could be said about Ian), and there are some other pictures I would have wanted to include, but I like the way the cards turned out, and given my emotional state of being for the past three months, I am very grateful that I created the card before I knew that Paul was giving up on chemistry. When I included a letter, I wrote a handwritten note at the bottom of almost every letter that was individualized. I can't do that this time, which is a disadvantage, but it also means it's a much quicker task to get the cards ready to mail. All I had to do was write the addresses on the envelopes. I am planning to mail them next week, which will be the earliest I've ever done that. So aside from finishing buying a few presents and then finishing up the wrapping, all I think I have left to do to get ready for Christmas is bake lots of Christmas cookies to give as gifts. I will say that decorating seemed contrary to the decluttering I just went through to get the house ready for showings, but that can't be helped this time of year. Paul snapped this photo on Wednesday morning before he left for work. He loved the fact that all three kids were reading (well of course Oliver was only looking at the book). Nadia was reading a chapter book, and Ian was reading to me. We all love books!
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