Merry & Bright

Merry Christmas!!

The holidays are usually hands-down my favorite time of the year. As soon as that Thanksgiving turkey is put away and the pies have been served, my mind immediately shifts into Christmas mode. The day after Thanksgiving has always been and will always be our Christmas Tree Day. I'm a sucker for traditions, and this one just happened to be the first official tradition of this Phythian family...so of course, it is my FAVORITE. This year was no different than any others when it came to the tree. As soon as we had eaten our regular Christmas Tree Day breakfast of leftover pumpkin pie, we got ourselves out the door and went to our Home Depot in search of the fattest tree they had. (Home Depot isn't exactly the most festive or unique place to find a tree...but my husband has a special history with the place. So whether I like it or not, we buy our tree from them.)

Just as every year before, I sifted through each of their trees to find the biggest, fattest, fullest tree. It happened to be the first one we saw, which was nice because it was right at the front and easiest to load up. We took it home and decorated it from top to bottom with all of our ornaments. The decorations came out, the lights went up and by late afternoon our entire house was officially Christmasified!!

But even as the sun went down and the house glowed with the lights on the tree; even as the traditional Christmas movies came on and our turkey soup boiled on the stove...something just didn't feel the same. Our Christmas season just felt...off...

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that Harold has been deployed for most of 2012 and ever since he got home, time has flown by so quickly that I can't even remember what we did in between the day he got home and that day we went and picked out our tree! Also, we actually get to go HOME this year. We will be back on the west coast to bring in the New Year, and to share in a few belated Christmas's!! We have 20 full days of leave to spend with friends and family in a handful of states in the Great Northwest...most of whom haven't even met our 2 year old. This is sure to be our BEST vacation yet!!

So I've decided that this feeling I've had that's made our Christmas feel just a little less Christmasy this year is because we have just been so excited for this trip home that we just can't handle any more excitement!! We are looking forward to finally spending a few mini-Christmas's with our families and friends, celebrating Harold's homecoming and Aden's 2 year birthday parties he has in store.

But...even though I feel like those are a few pretty good reasons for feeling a little unlike myself this Christmas...I still took the time to partake in one of our other Christmas traditions. Right up there with our Christmas Tree Day is the time we take on Christmas Day to look back on the photos of our past Christmas's and remember the moments that made them special...and to admire our Christmas trees from years ago. So today I decided that these memories were completely appropriate for a special Christmas post. These are our Christmas's, from the day Harold and I became engaged to today, with our newest tree and our favorite kid (and dogs).