Yes, It's Christmas

It's coming faster than I can keep up with.  Yes, it’s Christmas and I am not ready for it in any way.  I got the tree up last week just in time for Matt's arrival home for the holidays.   The lights on the house went up and the storm blew them down the next day.   This is the first year I had help from Joe putting up the lights .  Not that he wouldn't help me in years past, but he has always had the daunting Christmas chore of figuring out how Christmas was going to happen financially, and there were a few years there that I still don't know how we did it.  Joe has worked a lot of overtime over the years - like every Christmas but this year.   That's 28 if you are counting.  With his new position he now has been working from home for the last year which has given us a new dance to learn.  He is here all day long, morning to night, in my way, asking for food and other things we will not speak about.  My carefully choreographed routine has been disrupted this last year.   This routine consists of getting up, having breakfast and maybe going for a walk then getting to the studio and immersing myself in work. Then, about 3:30pm, I would quickly clean up the house, get out of my sweats, take a shower, do my hair and makeup and get all dolled up for my man.  4:30 - 5:00 he'd walk in and say how pretty I looked, having no idea how I spent my day.  I think he thought I was like this all day.  It was so sweet.  In this new routine  he soon started noticing the reality.  He asked me the other day if I was going to take a shower any time today.  I say yes, when my boyfriend comes home from work about 5:00.  So now he is home all day and my routine is changing but  it did come in really handy when putting up the lights. I didn't have to get on the ladder once.  He even ran to the store for me and got more extension cords (which we are always short of).

So the lights are up and the neighborhood looks very festive in the evening.  Even the Pakistani family has put up a very large snow globe on their front lawn.  Now they are true Americans. Our neighborhood is very multicultural for this part of California.  Except for the Russians,  I mean Ukrainians, who still are having trouble with all the holiday cheer and can't understand why we have dogs.

We use to have a family from Germany living in the 'hood for about 8 years. They always had great parties with wonderful food.  We where sad when they moved back to Europe.  But Marlis took our tradition of Christmas lights on the house with her.   I guess she was quite the hit in her new neighborhood in Sweden when she decorated the outside of her new home with Christmas lights. I hope they where the blinking ones. Leave it to us tacky Americans to have too much bling for the holidays.

It’s important to decorate because once you get the decorations up, it feels like Christmas. The job I dreaded was just what I needed.  Now I need to work on what’s on TV. We wanted a Christmas show last night, so I went to On Demand and under holiday shows, was RAMBO!?!   When did Rocky become Christmas.
Just shoot me now and get it over with. There wasn’t one good holiday show that didn't involve a murder or sex or some dysfunctional family with sick humor. Why????

So when you can't see it on TV or in the movies,  put some sparkly lights on your house and turn on some Christmas music, really loud so the neighbors know it's here and what is on TV is not what it is about.
Christmas in not about gifts, and who is buying cars for Christmas?  It's not about the decoration and lights but about a baby that was born to save mankind and boy do we need him now.   Well, at least I do!
Merry Christmas!