May Your Season Be Bright!

Last year, I was a little bit of a sad Grinch about Christmas.  I waited until the very last moment to decorate and only because I had family coming over.  Let me just admit to being a tad depressed last year about the holidays.  This year, I am totally in the spirit:).

My house is decorated.  Not crazy lady decorated, but nicely done.  Just enough to make me smile, and I love what I did.

This little antique basket is full of gold, stars, and snowflakes.  It sits on my kitchen table, and I love the way the morning light catches it.

I have been leaning towards an serious obsession with little trees.  As a little girl, the Betsy books by Carolyn Haywood were my absolute favorites.  Betsy and Star had a little Christmas tree in their room, and I have been obsessed with the idea of them ever since!  I am only letting myself buy one little one every other year.  There may be a few more that are not in the picture...

My day has been spent filling these little boxes with lights!  Every year, I make myself insane with baking, fudge-making, and more baking.  I find myself rushing around to the point where I am cranky the whole last week of school.  I get so stressed out about those little presents for my colleagues and office staff.  I promised myself that I would be "in the moment" with my kids this year, rather than distracted by a million other things.  Over Thanksgiving break, I was at Ikea (indulging in my little tree obsession) looking at Christmas tree decorations when they put the whole display on sale, right as I was standing there!  I scooped them up and counted later!

Beautiful, right!  They took a little putting together, but once I figured it out, it was easy!  The little LED lights each have a snowflake that snaps over them.  It felt like holding a magical fairy bouquet in my hands.  I spent the whole day giggling and covered in snowflake lights.  Tomorrow night, I am going to tie a little bow on each handle with a tag that says, "MAY YOUR SEASON BE BRIGHT!" 

The boxes were a freebies, and I figure that the lights, snowflakes, and batteries might be a little more than what I would spend on baking supplies, but I am not going to be baking ALL WEEK!  Plus, the left overs are not going to find their way onto my hips!  I plan on doing a little baking for treat week in the lounge, and some extra for a few of the guys (who probably would not appreciate snowflake fairy lights, and they have already asked what day I would be bringing their cookies:).  Please don't get me wrong, I love baking.  I just don't love baking all night and getting stressed out about it!

Before I sign off, I wanted to let everyone know that I am fine.  Southern California got hit hard with a few storms, but my house is fine.  I am about a million dollars shy of living in those neighborhoods that were damaged in the awful mudslides.  We needed the rain, just not 8-10 inches in one 24 hour period.

I will post a few pictures about what I am doing for my kiddos later this week!  In the meantime...

May Your Season Be Bright!