And It's Christmas Time Again...

*takes a seat early on this bitter cold Christmas morning. Coffee in hand and ready to celebrate the day. Christmas will always be my favorite time of year*

Spoiler alert for today's post, there are no cards with the coffee today.

Today, I just want to celebrate Christmas as the dice have hit 00 on my Days Till Christmas Countdown Scentsy holder. Before you ask, my wife is a Scentsy consultant, so this is kind of a promoting her side business kind of deal. She sponsors me with kisses and coffee. Hope that wasn't too much TMI, if so, just cover your kids' eyes if they get to that part of today's post.

I cut back a lot on my decorating this year, not sure why, but instead I upped the lights. I have lights in every room of my house, including the front of my house, but not the bathroom where my cats like to hang. If you have seen Christmas Vacation, you will know why I didn't put them in there.

These Christmas throw pillows were the only new addition this year to my nonlight decorating, I think they are solid additions though.

 

My tree, bless its soul, has probably seen it's last year as one of the legs had broken and it's being held up by a book instead. I should have gotten a new one this year or even gone into the woods where I live and got a real one, but I just gave this one its final goodbye tour. It's like when a player gets signed back to their original team on a one-year contract to retire as a part of that team.

I should also mention the tree won't make it another year as it has fallen over a couple of times, once on me. Just picture that scene in Elf when he was trying to put the star on.

I am sure that will be one for the Christmas memory bank.

*takes a sip, starts to take a dive into that memory bank for a story from the past to share today*

Growing up poor, there wasn't a lot of expectations around Christmas. We visited the mall Santa maybe twice my entire childhood, only got a few gifts yearly which mainly came from the Santa Fund-and wasn't anything off from our lists-and my family didn't decorate much. The tree we would get, was usually the ugliest one that could be found in the woods-not on purpose-that made Charlie Browns look like a tree from heaven.

I also remember my parents never using real wrapping paper for our gifts, instead it was grocery store plastic bags or old newspapers. Then the memory of my sister getting caught in the middle of the night trying to snoop at her gifts. Another year, she opened them all and then tried her best to re-wrap them...my parents obviously saw that, and she got in trouble. I remember watching Rudolph, Frosty, California Raisins Christmas Special, Peanuts Christmas Special and the Garfield Christmas Special on television every year. I also remember watching Silent Night, Deadly Night and its sequels with my mother who would rent them on VHS.  None of this was the Ghostbusters Firehouse I wanted or felt at the time I needed, but looking back on those memories, they were so much more.

This may sound corny and probably repetitive, but Christmas truly is about family and the memories you make with them. It's not about the gifts, not about the glimmer and glam, and it's not even about having the prettiest tree. It's family.

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post*

I have plenty of other memories to share about Christmas and you will hear them all as years go on.

For this year, I just need to get off this computer to go and make some memories with family and I hope you all do the same. Well, expecting you to read this first of course.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! May your coffee mugs be filled, and your hearts be full.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*