Hooray Christmas!

Thanksgiving was fun. I forgot to take pictures the whole time. Mostly because the camera was usually at my parents' house and most of the action was at my grandparents' house. But here is a picture of my family's dog. He was wandering around and I told him to lay down and stop being a nuisance.

He got halfway there.
Since my people live out in the hills, we cut down the dead trees and use them as firewood to keep the house warm. (My parents don't have central heating and cooling, they didn't want that when they built the house. We use wall heaters in each room, and the fireplace in the middle of the house to keep things warm in the winter. It's pretty cool, actually.)
Anyways, while the menfolk were out cutting wood, my foster brother came in with a huge scratch on the side of his head. He'd gotten smacked with a piece of wood on accident.

He's clearly rather unhappy about it. It did hurt a lot though- I was the one who doctored the wound and it didn't look very happy.
But now it's time for CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!!

(In case you were wondering, tape doesn't hold lights AT ALL.)

Honestly, I'm not a fanatic about them. I don't have very many, and I don't buy any frivolously because ever since I got married, I have a little Husband Man voice in the back of my head, and every time I think I want to buy something or make something crafty I hear that little voice ask me things like "Where will you put that?" and "What will you do with it once you've finished it?"

But there's something about Christmas lights that make me happy. I love having them up. Its the soft glow in a darkened room that makes everything feel like it's all wonderful.

We have two nativity sets, one on top of the entertainment center and the little teeny one in the above picture that you didn't notice because you were probably staring at the surfer nutcracker instead. That's Husband Man's nutcracker- I guess his family collects one for him every year, and this one was last year's. It's the only one we have, though, because let's face it- we're still college students living in a college apartment. You tell me where you're going to put 20-odd nutcrackers the height of your forearm, and we'll start talking.
If he really wanted, I suppose we could talk about putting them on the entertainment center... but that makes me nervous, because it's actually not pushed up against the wall. The tv sticks out the back of it.

So our house isn't covered with lights on the outside, and it hasn't been transformed into a hoard of Christmas paraphernalia inside, but it does have that touch of Christmas that makes me happy every time I look at it!

There's just one thing I can't decide on- is it irreverent to hang the Jesus stocking from the ceiling...?