Friday, December 02, 2016

Are You Ready For Some Christmas?

I'm not sure why, but it seemed like there was a long gap between Thanksgiving and December this year.

Once we returned to Ohio from the Thanksgiving holiday and threw away all the pumpkins and packed up all the Fall decorations,

it was still November.

I am not one of those people that can put up a Christmas tree during the Thanksgiving holiday.

I just can't.

I may change one day.

But for now, I need December to actually be here before I think of hitting a Christmas tree lot.

I actually did something somewhat brilliant this year.

I printed the addresses of my Christmas card list out on labels.

It was so fast and easy!

And I only did 30 cards at a time so I didn't have that dread of killing a whole night addressing cards.

Depending on where you fall in the alphabet, 
you may have gotten a Christmas card from us while it was still November.


Yeah, I was that person.

Clearly, my Christmas tree rule 
isn't a hard fast rule 
for all things Christmas.

Monte is leaving soon for an out of town conference so he took today off to help get the outdoor Christmas lights hung up.

Of course, it's windy and cold.

It's been quite balmy most of the week.

I have been trying to fight off a cold all week with all manner of Zicam, Emergen-C, Echinacea, clementines and homemade soup.

This morning, I woke up with clogged ears, crusty eyes and the general feeling that I had been run over by large machinery in my sleep.

I felt like I screamed through my prayer group and was either super hot and sweaty or just downright freezing.

I was still pretty hard of hearing and full of brain fog when Monte came in muttering he couldn't figure out baby Jesus.

Before I had a chance to present the gospel to him

or more realistically say, 

"WHAT?!"

I noticed he was holding the plastic baby Jesus of our nativity scene.



I'm so excited we bought a plastic set from the hardware store in my hometown last year the day after Christmas.

Monte went in looking for a bargain and came out with a full price nativity set.

He said something like, 

"I bet you don't want to store that until next year 
so let me make you an offer."


Their counteroffer was they didn't mind at all storing it 
so it was still full price.

Either way, I got my nativity set.


Mary and Joseph required us to purchase and install 60-watt bulbs, but baby Jesus came with his own special light.

Of course.

Monte couldn't understand why it wasn't coming on very well.

He finally figured out the bulb was covered in plastic to keep it from breaking.

Can you imagine if Monte left it plugged in 
and baby Jesus caught fire?!

You know we'd have to call the fire department 
and it would be our now friend Alan 
who answered our earlier call about the noise coming from our fireplace 
and he'd have to use the big fire hose to extinguish baby Jesus 
and we'd be left with Mary and Joseph looking lovingly 
at a charred piece of burnt plastic.

But alas, 

Monte figured out baby Jesus 

and none of that happened.


Although he did have an uncomfortable moment installing the light inside of Joseph.


He said he now knew how our friend Mark, 
who preforms colonoscopies, felt.

For many reasons, 
Monte made me install Mary's bulb.

They are now resting calmly under our lilac tree.




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