The Christmas Grinch almost got me

These two little ones...

have put the love back in Christmas for me this year.

*These pics are for you Debby! :)

I absolutely love holidays--any holiday really...but Christmas for me is just absolutely JOYOUS. I love it. Love everything about it. I love the chaos. I love the excitement. I love the family time. I love the decorations. I love the giving. I love the magic of it all.

But this year I was starting to feel like I had lost some of my Christmas love.

I've been so distracted by other things that I was starting to feel like some aspects of Christmas prep were more time consuming {gasp!} than joyous. Life just seems extra busy these days and with the countdown to going back to work, it just means that my brain is on overdrive right now. So yes, Christmas just wasn't feeling the same to me as it always had.

Last week as I was talking to Jen and Jeff, I mentioned that we hadn't even put our tree up yet and Jeff's response pretty much summed up Terry's feelings about me and Christmas this year...he looked at me with a shocked "WHAT?! Erica Dawson doesn't have her tree up yet??!".

But honestly, I finally understood this year how some people would respond to my adoration of Christmas with a bit of a huff. It can feel like there's all of a sudden so many more things to get done, when your list of everyday to-do life stuff is already a mile long.

You know it's bad when Terry comes over to me, smiles and then wraps his arms around me and says

"We're going to decorate the tree today--and we're going to be HAPPY about it..okay?"

It made me laugh...because it's usually him wrestling the Christmas decorations out of my hands on Oct 31st, claiming it's just too ridiculously early to start putting up all of my Christmas joy.

BUT, the good news? I learned this year how to snap myself out of this little Christmas funk, quickly.

I figured that since I wasn't feeling the Christmas thrill yet, and certainly didn't want my kids to pick up on this, I prepared for the most wonderful tree decorating morning that we could have ever imagined. I convinced myself that if we had this task of putting up the tree, I better make it the most magical and joyous event of the day.

So since it was already chocolate chip pancake Saturday in our house, we finished our breakfast and I pretended that I was really looking forward to setting up the tree and decorating it...even though it really was feeling like just one more thing to check off the list.

But you know what?...As I started boiling water for our hot chocolate and pulled out the mini marshmallows to place on top, I started feeling a bit better about it all. It felt like the magic was starting to settle in. Then I cranked up the Christmas music really loudly and started telling the kids how wonderful it was going to be to decorate our tree together--and I really started feeling it. Then I started running around the house turning on every set of twinkle lights that we have up, and all of a sudden our house started to feel magical. Whatever you say or think will become your reality, so my reality was quickly changing and I started to just let go and enjoy it...because it really did become wonderful.

So we sipped on hot chocolate...

played in the tree box...

pulled out all of the ornaments...

and let the magic unfold.

Which consequently led to beautiful snowflakes falling from the sky right in the midst of us putting the final touches on the tree.

Which I don't think was a coincidence.

And even though our tree is now a little top-heavy, from tiny fingers pulling at ornaments all day long---it's still the most perfectly magical place to snuggle up with a baby doll and have an unexpected afternoon nap.

Which I just love.

So sorry for my rotten attitude, Christmas. I'm over it. I still love you.

Erica xo