You know, deck them halls and all that stuff?

Christmas time is HERE.


That is nuts! Nuts, I tell you!!!

Chestnuts roooasting on an open firrrre... (Imagine Nat King Cole's voice, please. Instead of yours. Or mine.)

(Seriously, it makes for a much nicer reading experience.)

(Promise!)

Speaking of Mr. Cole, he's got a leading role in many of my most prominent childhood Christmas memories. During the week of transition between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my mom would start playing his songs in the mornings and evenings while we went about our business. Vince Guaraldi, Andy Williams, Manheim Steamroller, and other classics also serenaded us as we eased ourselves into the final part of each year. Yes indeed, I grew up on the good stuff. :)

We're creatures of habit, my family and I. We find our groove, and we just...keep on grooving. The same decorations lit up our house every year. We always had a fresh tree, with the same red and gold balls. We watched the same holiday movies - Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and Frosty the Snowman. We always got to open one gift from under the tree, one pair of new pajamas, and a new book on Christmas Eve.

And on Christmas morning, Julie was always usually the first one to pop out of bed and look at what everyone got.

And you know what? We loved it. We loved our traditions, from the three wise men searching for the babe across our entertainment center, to the handwritten "thank you for the cookies" card from Santa on Christmas morning.

And you know what else?

I miss all of that.

So on account of being terribly pathetic and whining about how I'm all "married" and stuff this year -

Fact: Married people simply cannot go about their little houses quoting random lines from Linus and Charlie Brown when their partners-in-marriage have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. It gets a lot embarrassing in not a lot of time, when there's just the two of you.

- I decided to just be super duper ooper mooper Christmassy and get all that whining crap right out of my system.

Because how are you supposed to go around being all holly and jolly and joyful and whatever with whining crap in your system, I ask you?

(You're not.)

(And for the record, I adore beyond words the fact that I am married. I'm just, you know, whining.)

I submit the following as evidence of my change o'heart:

It's a gingerbread train!!!! Yay!!!! In like, a cute little woodland setting!

The engine, with a festive wreath. And a nice big headlight to guide the way through the snowy nights! :)

The coal and lumber cars, with pretty convincing coal and lumber.

My snowman! Amidst the rocks and trees and bushes.

The caboose, with the stash of gold ready to be dropped off at the bank in the next town.

This adventure was incredibly entertaining! I had no idea it would be so much fun. Maybe coming up with your own traditions isn't that bad after all? :)

I still fully plan on quoting Charlie Brown. I mean, how can you not?