As I said yesterday, I’m very happy to have the house “done”. Honestly, I think decorating pre-Thanksgiving might be kind of a genius idea (for me).
I know some people disagree with this school of thought, but it seems like it really allows the time from Thanksgiving –> Christmas to be lightened up a bit. Now I feel like I can just focus on finishing up buying/ wrapping gifts and then hopefully the relaxing parts of the holiday season- baking some cookies, actually ENJOYING the decorations, watching Christmas movies, etc.
It always felt like WAY too much got crammed into those ~3 1/2ish weeks other years. Hoping this helps!
Christmas Tree Decorating 2021
We always do a little “evening” of tree decorating. Christmas music on, fireplace on, Christmas PJs on (for the boys- we DO NOT DO MATCHING FAMILY PJs at our house! Just the idea of this makes me cringe so much. I am very sorry if you are Team Matching PJs- all the power to you. I’m sure it’s adorable. But not here. NOPE!!!!)
I buy the boys an ornament or two every year from wherever we have traveled, plus of course they have the ones they made in school, or received as other gifts…..we have a lot of ornaments! It’s so fun to pull them all out.
I always try to snap a few “nice” ones of them hanging ornaments on the tree, ala magazine ad style.
More shots turned out like this:
I got in at least one…in my “un-showered Sunday look” glory:
Now, on to the best part. Lying around on the couch by the glow of the tree. 🙂
Ivan and I finally started a new series!! We caught up/ finished This Is Us over a month ago now (so, now we wait, with the rest of the world, for the new ones to come out.) We hadn’t really watched anything since, but this past weekend we started Atypical on Netflix. I forget who recommended it to me, but so far- we really like it! It’s about a teenaged boy who is on the autism spectrum, along with plenty of side stories about his family. The other night the kids got to bed EARLY ENOUGH that we could actually watch our more adult show in the living room, like we used to when they were little. It was nice!
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for heated seats in my van this time of year.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Your tree looks absolutely lovely. I agree – getting things up earlier just means more time to enjoy them during Christmas instead of rushing around. And I love all the sentimental ornaments you’ve sourced; it makes the tree feel so personalized and loaded with memories.
We won’t put up our main (real) tree for another week or so. I actually decorate a bit at a time; a few things a week starting mid-November!
We are definitely NOT a matching PJs family. The whole thought of organizing that is beyond overwhelming to me! Definitely something I very happily opt out of. It’s fascinating what different families prioritize – like to some people a Christmas card feels daunting but to me seems like so much less pressure than sourcing holiday PJs in a wide range of sizes.
Today I’m grateful the contractors were able to spend the whole day working outside and we have one WHOLE wall of new metal siding completed. So excited to finally see some progress after months and months of planning/waiting.
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amazing tree, love it! it makes me miss mine thousands miles away. not sure we will ever have it set up again. This is US is probably one of my favorite series, it’s so sweet, but not my husband’s kind of TV. he’s more like an action guy, 007 was our last movie together.
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I used to wait until the Sunday after Thanksgiving to decorate, but the last 2 years, I’ve put our tree up in mid-November! I have found I need the happy glow of the tree! Plus by 12/26, I am ready to take it down and get our living room back in order! So this extends the amount of time we have that lovely glow from the tree. Paul sort of helped this year but it was minimal. He also has his own little felt tree w/ ornament so he decorated that. He hasn’t touched it since whereas last year he kept rearranging it!
We are NOT a matching pjs family either! I see so many families w/ matching pjs so it’s good to know I’m not the only one! I did buy matching pjs for me and the boys, though. There were some cute dinosaur ones and I knew Paul would get a kick out of matching jammies! Zero chance of getting Phil in a pair of Christmas jammies. I also bought another set of matching ones for the boys and lucked out and got a matching set at Once Upon a Child.
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