Ready, Set, Christmas!

Since we have six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year than we did last year, I didn't feel too badly when I hauled all my red and green tubs out on Monday and started decking my halls. But man, there are a lot of people out there who get verrrry bent out of shape over the whole prepping for Christmas before Thanksgiving thing. 

Nordstrom makes a point to let people know that they "just like the idea of celebrating one holiday at a time" and certainly try their best to appeal to the "making people WORK on Thanksgiving is OUTRAGEOUS" camp. 

Yeah, I was at the Mall of America on Wednesday. And yeah, I'm an idiot. 

Huh. Guess "Thanksgiving festivities" is a Nordstrom term for making a whole bunch of people WORK all day on Thanksgiving putting up decorations in time for opening on Friday. They don't want to rush Christmas but seem to have no problem making their employees miss Thanksgiving. Good to know. 

And speaking of working on Thanksgiving. I've also noticed that a lot -- and I mean a lot -- of people have their panties in a huge bunch about stores starting Black Friday early and opening on Thanksgiving night. "Don't shop! Don't support this outrage!" is the battle cry heard 'round Facebook.

*warning: Editorial coming up in 3…2… Here's how I see it. If you watched the Macy's parade, the dog show, or any football game or news broadcast on Thanksgiving day you were supporting hundreds upon hundreds of people who were hard at work. If you have ever eaten your Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant, ditto. I guess I just don't see how it's different. Shopping, a sports game, a dinner out; all things that could be lumped into the 'entertainment' category. It seems hypocritical to me to complain about retail stores being open when you'll watch the football game that takes over 100 people to broadcast to you (and by 'you' I do not necessarily mean you….but hopefully that's understood). I talked to a guy working in a clothes store last week who told me he was so happy he got to work on Thanksgiving because he was going to get paid time and a half, which he could really use. I think many people are just automatically critical of "the man" and "commercialization" and a whole bunch of other popular buzz words that get spouted off nowadays and forget about the fact that many of the people who are working retail (or in the food service industry…or taxi drivers…or the people working in the hospital cafeterias) might be very thankful for the extra hours….and the extra income. 

But enough about my opinion on that, because now that we've finally put Thanksgiving to bed I can really throw myself into Christmas without guilt! And with six fewer days, I'm ready to hit the gate running.

Let's roll the Favorites STAT because I've gotta get to Target to replace the extension cord that blew on my Christmas tree on Wednesday night which may or may not have been the cause of Thing 2 learning many a new fanciful word.

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1.  A proud mama moment
At the risk of making you all puke and call me obnoxious, I have to be honest and tell you about my most favorite moment from the past week (after all, it's what this post is all about, right?): Thing 1 performing in her high school's version of American Idol. She made it to the Top 13 (down from about 50 who'd originally auditioned) and Tuesday night performed in front of about 700 people, singing and accompanying herself on piano. Honestly, I don't know how she even made it out to the piano not to mention made any sort of connection between her brain and her mouth and fingers. But she did. And she was ah-MA-zing. I'm not posting photos on the blog (because she'd kill me), so I'll do something even more mortifying and post the YouTube video, because that's my job. Please just continue on if you are rolling your eyes at me. There's candy.

2. Peppermint Junior Mints

The day Target puts these out ($1 a box!) I snag about six of them. Not all that different than regular Junior Mints, but these have crunched up candy cane bits in the chocolate part. And some of them have globs of it which makes the chocolate part all lumpy and crunchy.

Those ones are my very favorite and I may or may not have almost veered off the road digging in the box trying to find them before coming to my senses and just dumping the entire box in my lap to make it easier. Death by Junior Mint. Not really how I'd like to go.


3. Christmas greenery

In Minnesota everyone decorates their porches with spruce tips in early November so it's all done before the temperature plummets to single digits. I say 'in Minnesota' because I grew up in Arizona (and other various western states) and had never heard of a spruce tip before I moved here an eternity ago. Must have something everything to do with the fact that unless the weather is subzero they'd all turn brown and crispy. Over the past 16 years arranging my pots and "sprucing up" my porch (see what I did there?) is one of my very favorite parts of getting in the holiday spirit. And big plus, the day I did this it was over 30°.

4. Holiday Nuts

Trust me, if you get these you will thank me….and then hate me.

5. The rest of my day today

Rounding out this week's list are a few things that haven't even happened yet, but that I already know are favorites.  After I finish this seemingly never ending post I'm gonna eat a piece of Pumpkin pie, work out (not a favorite but a necessity for the pie and for the next item on the list), go to Buffalo Wild Wings with the fam, stop by Target to check out the Black Friday madness, and come home and decorate the Christmas tree while my family sits on the sofa with their various devices open on their laps and acts like they're helping. (<< not a favorite but totally is a favorite at the same time). 

Huh. Food, Target, family and Christmas: That list pretty much sums up all the FAVORITES in my life right there. :)

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