Deck Me.

{Secret Note to Self: This post shall take no longer than 10 minutes to write. No more 90-min long posting! You will be finished by 11:30pm or you will run 15 extra punishment minutes tomorrow morning. In the cold.}

Below is the non-secret portion of today's post.

As of three days ago, I have begun decking the halls. It is a compulsion for me to begin the minute after Halloween is over.

I admit that as I answered doors to trick-or-treaters (a grand total of 3--story to follow in a coming post), the Christmas storage bins were waiting in the wings--brought up from the basement but hidden behind a closed door.

I have been secretly listening to Christmas music since the first chill in the air. I have been grinning-and-bearing my way through Halloween and will now reward myself with lights and glitter and garland and (cue the Sesame Street Grover Voice).....sprinkles!
Sweetie Jack was given a candy cane to keep him satisfied and subdued while Mimi & I dove into the frenzy. This was Mantle Decor, Day 1. I've been dreaming up a white & silver mantle, so I started with a huge silver frame and added a white feather boa. The frame has been in my basement Frame Stash for who-knows-how-long (that is an interchangeable term for "approximately how long I've been married"). The boa was from Mimi's chicken halloween costume 3 years ago.

While impatiently waiting for a socially acceptable time to Deck the Halls, I've been avariciously reading The Nester. She opened my eyes to shopping the house and using what you have to decorate, so I've been looking at all my stashes with new appreciation.

Below: I added lights and a few jars filled with white snowball-y looking ornaments. This is all stuff I had from my Endless Christmas Bins.

Mimi has been waiting all year to decorate this little white tree. Well, actually not. As my fingers were typing that sentence my subconscious self remembered the day in June I found Mimi & the cilantro-partner-in-crime decorating the tree with all my blown glass candy ornaments. *&$#@!%!! Seriously. With an fair amount of broken glass on the cement floor.

But she got a second chance and did a good job. {I am now 8 minutes past my deadline. Crap. Why can't I be a fast writer?}

I'm pretty sure she's got visions of sugarplums already.

Here is the mantle about halfway into the process.

The candy cane sugar rush did not deter Jack from going to bed. Here is the little mama about to take him upstairs. Isabelle loves to put him to bed, snuggle him in, arrange his blankies just so around his face, pet his feathers and say goodnight to him.


A day later, I added the mirror--also from the basement. Everything is just kind of thrown up there, but it sparkles so I like it. I'm going to do a fun candy theme on the upstairs mantle where the kids congregate, and I'm not sure about the mantle in my room. I'm just glad we are here in this house to see another Christmas, so I'm having fun making it cozy. We've got a tenuous grip on life with even more tenuous finances. I plan to drown my sorrows in sprinkles.

{20 minutes past the deadline...I'm going to be so sore tomorrow from punishment minutes.}

***Edited to add: Post finished at 11:55pm. Dangit.