Is it Too Early For Eggnog and Carolling?

I've always loved Christmas. I adore the Christmas lights, the snow, the coziness of our houses all buttoned up tight, the scent of Christmas trees, the scent of wood burning into the neighbors fireplaces drifting through the air. The way that we are usually wrapping my sisters gifts until the wee hours of Christmas morning because she's a worse procrastinator then even I am. How her, DH and I are up most of the night laughing and drinking coffee to stay awake to finish the wrapping. How we're all so slap happy that none of us are making any sense at all. How we barely crawl into bed and shut our eyes when the kids are up wanting to open gifts. The way my sister and her kids spend the night at our house so all of us can wake up together. The way that my sister buys the kids matching pajamas so that every morning the kids all match. How we spend a very lazy day enjoying our new gifts, the kids playing with their new toys, and the adults going back down for a nap. I even love the shopping part, trying to find the right gift for someone I love. It all seems to fly by so quickly and I'm always trying to find a way to slow it down, make it last, stretch it out as far as I can before it's gone and the New Year starts. My only irritation with it is when stores start putting out decorations October 1st. It's like we can't even enjoy Halloween or Thanksgiving before Christmas is right there in front of us.

Our little family ritual is to put up our Christmas tree and house decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving every year. For some reason this year is different. I've been dying to put it all up NOW. In fact I begged DH to pull it all out 2 weeks ago and he thought I was crazy. Well first, he REFUSED, then said I was freakin nuts!

I'm not sure why I've been wanting to start the Christmas season yet. Is it because my MIL is so ill that maybe this will be her last Christmas with us? Maybe I'm wanting the familiar, the rituals, something that makes sense in our lives again. Christmas happens every year without fail. You can count on it. Life has been so crazy around here and so unpredictable. We don't know how long MIL has left with us. We don't know when she'll be gone. We don't know what tomorrow will bring. What I do know is that we need to make Thanksgiving and Christmas the best ones yet. So that all of us can remember these times when we're having to celebrate without her with us. I can't imagine a time when she won't be here. My brain can't wrap itself around that thought.

So for now, I want to make this the best holiday season we've ever had!