3 days

3 days 'till H1 and SIL come to NO!!! (No, I'm not excited)!!! It's shaping up to be a great weekend: I'm off on Friday (no babysitter), J graduates/comes home, and M/H come in from Houston; Saturday is immunizations for the girls (not so much fun) and the holiday party (and going out after); Sunday we get a Christmas tree. If memory serves though, finding the tree and decorating it always seems like it would be fun but turns into a chore - getting a tree w/o a huge hole somewhere in the branches, trying to get it into that stupid tree stand and have it stand upright, watering it (either by crawling down on my stomach or having the kids just spill water all over the floor and hope it hits the tree, either way it's a pain in the ass); and decorating it (which involves pulling out all the ornaments while trying to keep the kids away from the antique and/or glass ones). But, once it's done, it's magical...I love to sit in the darkened living room and watch the lights twinkle and smell the pine.

Now, let me address the two Christmas debates - white lights vs. colored (both indoor and out), and real vs. fake trees:

I used to like white lights, until I had kids. Kids definitely prefer multicolor, so now we go with those. When the white lights first made their debut, I thought they were so classy and sophisticated. Now, they're everywhere and boring. I want to see color!!! Make it spectacular - the gaudier the better! Because let me tell you, the kids don't ask you to slow down at the house with the white lights and a deer in the yard. They want you to hurry up to the next block to see the yard that looks like the giant blow-up santa vomited multicolor lights over every inch of that yard!!! (we don't go that overboard b/c honestly it's just a pain in the ass, but I do appreciate the hard work those homeowners put into their display)

And trees: Every year I say I'm going to buy a fake tree after Christmas for the next year (because who wants to pay full price, right?) but then we put up a real tree and it smells sooo good. I mean,there's pine needles all over the place, and it really is a pain in the ass to water it (did I mention that already? I did? Hmmm, must be true then), but something about the real tree appeals to me. Plus, after Christmas they collect them and drop them all into the bayou to help preserve our wetlands. That's good, right? But with a fake tree, you don't have to water it (which is a pain in the ass. Oh, I covered that already? right.) and there's no pine needles everywhere. I guess you can buy "pine in a can" or clean really good with pine-sol during the holiday season, but it's not the same. So, I guess they both have their pros and cons, but I do like a traditional live tree (although Chiamom/pop's tree is very realistic looking and everytime I go over I say I'm gonna get one like that). KenEllie mentioned they were worried that their cat would climb in the tree if it was real. We never had a cat climb in ours (and we've had several....cats and trees), but we did have a cat poo under the tree once (thankfully it was AFTER Christmas!!)

So that's where I stand on those important holiday issues. Dissenting opinions are welcome but wrong.