Clearing the air

For the record, I'm not contemplating joining the ranks of the Armed Forces. That was what the majority of you were guessing from my last post. . .

1. I'm too damn old.
2. I would go crazy living around that many people.
3. The pay is good, but not good enough that I'll let a job tell me what to do with my life.

Now that I've gotten that off of my chest. . .

Do all of you have your trees up, your decor out, and your lights displayed for the holiday?

I wish I did, but I married Ebeneezer Scrooge and I'm not allowed to even think about getting a tree until this weekend. I did convince hubby to decorate the outside of our house with a few lights and decorations. This is monumental considering it's been 5 years since the last time we agreed to put lights up and he swore to never do it again. It's amazing what an awe-struck little boy will do for your house around the holidays.

I've been itching to decorate for Christmas for weeks. When I pulled out my traditional decorations I ended up adding 3/4 of them to the 'garage sale' pile. Time to add some new items, but I dread shopping for them. I HATE shopping this time of year. Sure, there are alot of sales and the stores look so pretty, but the crowds and the stuff thrown all over the place . . . can't do it. I've become an online Christmas shopper. Sounds lame, but it is alot less stressful for me. However, I can't deny that I love going out after the holiday is over and buying up the items on clearance. Love it. Somehow everyone's moods are nicer; myself included.

Is it bad that I'm already looking past the holidays to plan our first Steinbauer family vacation? Hmmm, where will we go? There are so many choices.

First, Tanner and I will be taking a long weekend to NYC. We've been planning to visit there for awhile now, but just haven't made time to do it. This year we are making time. We would like to see Ground Zero, take in a show, do a little shopping, but mostly just take our time doing what we want, when we want.

As far as family vacation goes, I'm thinking somewhere warm with lots of things to keep a little one busy. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. (btw, Myrtle Beach is out of the question. We've visited there plenty of times and we're not interested in going again.)

There is still plenty of time to plan and daydream.

Off to start writing out my Christmas cards . . .

Which reminds me, remember the Christmas cards your family used to get back in the day; the ones with the letters in them with updates from the fam and good wishes for the New Year. I really miss those, but who has time to do that anymore? Still, those were so nice.

When is the last time you received a hand-written letter? Not a Post-It saying 'I love you' either. A real deal love letter. The last love letter I received was from Tanner. He wrote it 2 months before we got married. I should probably write him back. I think he'd really like that.

Oh, and you want to know what's on the top of my Christmas list this year? This
What's on the top of yours?