It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas was months ago

Out-of-season. It's how I like to buy clothes in order to save money. It's also how I am blogging this year, because I decided I couldn't afford to spend time blogging "in" season. 

I'm okay with that--for the most part. Although a Christmas blog post in March feels somewhat akin to holiday decorations that have been left up for too long. 

Speaking of things that take a long time, let's talk about this project of mine that had to wait ages to materialize. We had a wooden pallet sitting in the garage for a year and a half because I dreamed of turning it into a Christmas tree and asked Forest to save it for me. He kindly obliged, and I got an afternoon in late November to bring my dream to reality. I leaned it against the house on the front porch with an old sheet underneath, dug up some leftover paints from the basement, and started making my long-awaited Christmas tree.

Once the tree was painted, it needed a shiny star. I found an old popcorn tin (also in the garage. . . I know, our garage does not sound terribly immaculate these days) and borrowed Forest's tin snips to (carefully) make the treetop accessory.

 Finally, we needed ornaments and lights.

Did I ever mention that I enjoy making things out of trash?

It may not be much, but this is definitely the most festive our front porch has ever looked for Christmas.

Wylie was completely entranced by the lights on our street and loved looking out the front window to soak in "da dights" whenever he could.

Once December hit, it was time for the annual tree lighting ceremony in Old Town Timnath. Ramona had been practicing with the school's Jingle Bell Choir since September, and her group performed on stage as part of the festivities.

After her performance, we walked around, got some hot chocolate . . .

. . . and found some crafts for the girls to do.

 I took Wylie up to the balcony of the building to look at the lights.

His sisters eventually made a trip up there, too.

The Jingle Choir went on a field trip the following week and got to perform a final time at Foothills Mall in Fort Collins. I took Paula and Wylie to watch Ramona sing her songs again. Paula could pretty much sing along by now.

Then the four of us wandered around the mall for what turned out to be a rather unspectacular holiday shopping spree. There were two trips to the car to grab things we forgot (including my wallet, which I didn't realize was missing until I was at a cash register trying to buy a gift for someone) and a lot of chasing Wylie around. The only things we ended up buying were three packages of hair clips, purchased rather hurriedly in the last few minutes before Ramona had to meet her chaperone. I guess I am no good at shopping unless it is the end-of-season clearance kind. Thankfully, Ramona was a good sport and seemed happy to just spend some time together as we laughed about our follies.

Other items of note for the month of December:

1) The girls dressed up as angels for an outdoor nativity at the church

2) We got a few Christmas cards out--and to my delight, I even found stamps that matched my costume.

3) Mika dressed up for Grinch Day at school and pretended to steal ornaments off of a Christmas tree 

4) Our family participated in the "Light the World" campaign by doing simple (very simple) acts of service for each day of the month. I loved the opportunity to discuss principles of love and service as a family, and appreciated the short videos included to help inspire participants. The kids got pretty excited about it, too. It was, in many ways, sweeter than your typical advent calendar.

5) Oh yes, and we had furnace failure, as previously mentioned in Paula's birthday blog post.

Here are some memorable moments from Christmas Eve:

Here is documentation of the happiest moments from Christmas Day:

Everyone laughed out loud when we opened one gift from Grandma: It was a little business man outfit. The girls said Wylie was going to the the Boss Baby, just like the character from the movie that came out this past year.

And here is the day after Christmas:
(a few gifts were opened late, after some misbehavior was resolved)

I have to admit, finishing this blog post feels a bit like taking down Christmas lights and decor and storing them away where they belong this time of year. It's true that the task should have been accomplished weeks ago--but it still kind of feels like an achievement. And alongside that sense of achievement: a huge sigh of relief.