'Tis the Season

Today is my last day of work before Christmas.
And it's a half day so life really is quite good today. Last night we did our final shopping (cookies for Matt's daycare teachers and new shoes for him since his favourite ones are literally falling apart). Tonight I will finish up some of the wrapping I have to do - and the one craft project my sister and I doing. And, then it will be time to celebrate.
What I'm loving right now, though, is Matt's appreciation for the season. He's into it. And he's getting us into it. Like last night, we were walking through the parking lot at Walmart and he kept alternating between singing Rudolph and Jingle Bells. And then he started to sing the tune of Jingle Bells, but with different words. All at the top of his lungs. And despite the fact that everyone around us was stressed by the last minute shopping, tons of people turned to smile at us. It was pretty cute.
And, once we were done at Walmart we went on a light tour. This is one of my favourite Christmas events. There's a house in Burlington that is completely adorned with lights. It's pretty amazing. It has visiting hours and everything. So we took Matt to see that house. And then we drove around looking at other light displays. I sware, people in the suburbs go crazy with Christmas lights. We noticed that on some streets there is very clearly competition. It's rather bizarre. But, fun for us to look at.
So then we went home to our single pathetic light strand. It was kind of funny. First of all, Mike has made a point that he thinks all white lights should be banned in favour of colour lights. He thinks there should be a by-law. But, all we could unearth in our Christmas boxes was a single strand of white lights. So that is our decoration. But, to us it's Christmassy since we figure we're doing quite well by at least doing something having just moved.
But, the point is we went home. To this awesome house that we have been wanting for years - which nothing ever worked together for. So, we're kind of thrilled. And we arrived home to Christmas cards, and some stuff my sister left in our mailbox (since she's 5 minutes away and can do that!!!) and I realized just how lucky we are this year. Or perhaps the word is blessed.
But whatever it is. I'm grateful.
'Tis the season everyone. Let's celebrate.
And, soon to come (i.e. when I download the pictures) I will post the pictures of Matthew's Hanukkah celebration with the dreidel a friend of mine gave us. Soon. I promise!