Giving in to Christmas before Thanksgiving

It's official. I have given in to all things Christmas before Thanksgiving.

Which is completely off my regular schedule.

For me? Black Friday is the Christmas kick off. The day I usually start decorating. It didn't help this year that the day after Halloween this year some local stations started playing round the clock Christmas music. The boys were all.over.that. Just try to change the Christmas music and you will have 3 small boys telling you to put it right back on now Mommy! In all honesty though, I'm not even minding it.

The holiday pj's and the bathrobes have been pulled out for weeks. Buddy the Elf happened to show up a few days early. Perched himself on the top of the book shelf with the Transformers.

Last night we let the boys start their Christmas lists. With mugs of hot chocolate by request.

And today? I completely gave in. After the boys went to school, I went downstairs and brought up This.

Just one box so far. Who knows how many more I have in the cedar closet. At least 5 or 6? I really had to think about why I have been so resistant to hop on board and decorate everything a few weeks early. Last night I realized why.

It wasn't in the plan. Here is not where I thought we would be this Christmas. In my mind, we would have said goodbye to this house well before Thanksgiving even and settled into our new home with more than enough time to decorate. This is where I remind myself again that things will happen - whether or not it is on the time table I want - it will still happen.

So today I will surprise the kids and slowly start decorating the house. And we'll call it our last Christmas here. Because I'm still holding the vision and trusting the process. Cappy doesn't seem to want to move off the couch anyway.