Christmas Spirit

The first Christmas that Clark and I spent as a married couple was kind of a depressing one. Clark's dad had recently died and we were poor students with little money for decorations or gifts. I think one of Clark's few gifts that year was a pair of new shoes so he didn't have to wear ones with holes to his job interviews. Instead of decorating a tree, we decorated a plant that we brought home from Tom's funeral. Pretty sad, huh? Can you hear the tiny violin playing... 

Anyways, this year marks our first Christmas with a tree. It was extremely difficult to drag myself to Costco to actually buy a tree/decorations because I know that my mother has at least five full size trees along with copious holiday decorations sitting somewhere in their house in Provo. Grrrr. Naturally, her insane love of Christmas means I must HATE all things Christmas- especially trees and decorations. And Booker feels the same way- trust me. 

But despite all that, I have allowed myself to get into the Christmas spirit. It was really fun decorating the tree mostly because Booker had such a blast handing us each ornament and asking, "This one?" He felt so helpful. I'm glad we finally decided to cave and "get into" Christmas. It really is so much more fun when you have kids and can picture all the presents under the tree. Thanks to Skype, I'm hoping that my parents can join us on Christmas morning when we open gifts. Booker is getting his first Mr. Potato Head. I can't wait! 

Looking at our pretty tree just about erases my hanging-up-Christmas-lights and cleaning-up-smeared-poop-from-Booker's-nap bad mood. Sigh. Keep looking at that tree, Margaret. Its a long way until Christmas morning.