Guilted into it

This year I had absolutely no intentions of putting up a Christmas tree, decorating the house or even baking a cookie because this month after Friday, Maisie and I are barely home for four days and will be out of the country over Christmas. But alas...Sunday we were at K & A's as their tree was going up and the house was being decorated and made oh-so-festive, Maisie just loved it. Then everywhere we go Maisie points out all the beautiful decorations and lights and she can't seem to get enough of them. I wanted to make my girl happy so while she was at school this morning I put out some decorations and when we returned home she was so happy, her eyes lit up and she was very excited telling me how beautiful it looked. Then as I was putting her down for her nap she asked if we were going to have a tree as she really, really wanted one. Okay...so while she slept I set up our tree and started decorating it and once she awoke she was over the top excited and helped to finish decorating. Maisie loves the tree as it's decorated with giant bells, feathery peacocks, flowers with sparkly crystal centers, lights and pretty fairies...what more could a little girly girl ask for.

Looking back I've really been horrible at getting the house decorated and into the whole holiday mood and season. Just how much of a slacker have I been, check it out.

* I had a really good excuse for Christmas 2006. We left China on December 25th and arrived back in Atlanta on December 25th, a 36 hour day of which 27 hours was spent traveling so no tree, decorations, presents or even a special meal. On top of all the travel and time changes, I had pneumonia and ear infections and both Maisie and Eammon had colds and ear infections so sleep and getting healthy were our only priorities.

* Christmas 2007 was a normal 24 hour day but we were home from Aruba barely two days and I was sick with pneumonia and Maisie had a bad cold so decorating and putting up a tree just wasn't in the cards. I also figured that Maisie was so young, she didn't yet realize what she was missing.

* Christmas 2008 we did a little better. We were home from Aruba for five days before Christmas so I pulled out our little two-foot tall tree, got a nice meal made for Christmas day and actually got gifts wrapped and under the tree. Looking back it's amazing that I got that much done as I was actually still quite sick, recovering from being in the hospital for a good part of November and I was still tying to get over pneumonia (yet again) and c-diff. I remember making a wonderful dinner but it was really only Eammon who was able to enjoy it.

* Here we are 2009, our fourth Christmas with Maisie and I had figured between the palm trees all decked out in Aruba and being with family in England for Christmas with their trees and decorations that I'd get out of all the decorating but now Maisie "gets it" and so for her it was worth putting up a tree and putting out decorations. Just seeing the excitement and joy on her face will make her four days of Christmas at home worth it. Come January I'll have to remember her joy because it's the packing everything away that's truly the part that I dislike and try to avoid each year by not pulling the stuff out to begin with.