So, when I got married, no one told me I married the real life version of Clark Griswold.
Okay, that’s a bit of an exageration. Jake doesn’t work for a food preservative company.
When we were first married we had no money. Well, no EXTRA money to do any sort of Christmas decoration shopping. We were bare bones on the decorations that Christmas. I remember feeling sad because all of the decorations on the tree were Jake’s from his childhood that his mom had given us. I missed mine (which I got the next year). I also missed my moms winter wonderland of a house at Christmas time. Seriously, when she decorates for Christmas, it’s gorgeous. I love it.
Jake and I went shopping at the Dollar Store and bought crafty stuff and crayons and glue and construction paper. We made a lot of our decorations. He made a “log cabin” out of popsicle sticks and painted it green and brown. He also made a tree he painted green. He had to work Christmas Eve so I spent our first Christmas Eve home alone all night. It was also my first away from my family. Oh how I cried. And then I was bored beyond belief so I made a TON of decorations and hung them all in our entryway so he’d see them when he got home the next morning….Christmas morning. We went on to have a pretty nice first Christmas together. We both agreed it was kind of boring, but nice. We missed our families.
This year we will be away from our families againg at Christmas for the first time in 4 years. The first time with the boys. I am more sad for the boys and for the grandparents than I am for myself. On one hand I’m looking forward to a day of not driving all over town visiting everyone we possibly can on BOTH sides of our family. And on the other hand I’m going to miss driving all over town visiting everyone we possible can on BOTH sides of our family. 😉 Okay really I won’t miss that at all but I will miss the familiar faces and the smells and the conversations and annual picture taking.
Even so, I’m still getting excited for Christmas. So is Jake. He has already measured our gutters for the Christmas lights and to make sure our ladder fits. He discovered we will need a new ladder to reach the peaks on the front of the house. We’ve already browsed the Christmas section at WalMart and salivated at all the lawn decorations. I see a few new additions in our future. Our living room already has the designated spot for the tree that will go up the day after Thanksgiving….maybe even the night of Thanksgiving. Even though Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, we like to get crackin on Christmas asap. 😆
We’ve already decided to do a little Christmas shopping with each payday so the blow isn’t so hard come December. We’ve already hit a glitch in this area as Jake HATES to do this. Don’t ask me why. It’s always an issue. A few days ago I was on the hunt for Christmas pajamas for the boys. Matching OF COURSE. Do you know that there are Christmas jams for $30 PER KID?! And $40-$50 for adults?! Insane. Luckily, at Walmart the other night, I found EXACTLY what I was wanting. EXACTLY. For less than $10 per kid. How sweet is that? I am so excited. They are going to look so stinkin cute. And I’m contemplating embroidering their names on the front. Just in case we ever forget who they are. 😆
MY DAO DAYS 
Brandy we are long lost sisters!!! I LOVE Christmas and Thanksgiving!!!! Me and Dan’s first xmas was wonderful, we spent SOOOO much money. Don’t feel bad though, every year since then our budget has gotten smaller and smaller. I LOVE the jammies, you should do their names that would be so cute and they would look like the fancy ones from Pottery Barn. My husband is not into decorating and festive things though so it sounds to me like you have a wonderful man who gets into it with you. I would love to see some pictures of the lights and tree. I feel like it’s all coming so fast! Do you guys do anything for Halloween?
SO these are the *music* jams 😉
Nice!
I am so going to be so bummed when my kids refuse to wear matching jams…Although I am pretty sure I can bribe them for Christmas jams for some time yet.
*gasp* my lights are still on my peaks this year. I freaking hope they all work still! We’ll be doing that next weekend. Checking them and replacing the ones that are out. It could snow anytime yk?
And on the Christmas obsession, I think mines the opposite of yours and comes from the lack of ‘loveliness’ as a child. They were crazy and sad and stressful. I think that’s why all the ‘little’ things matter so much for me.
And for some reason I’ve not heard your First Christmas story before…huh…
😀
You were gone our first Christmas. Remember? 😉 I guess I just pretty much figured you knew it since we friends then? huh. But yeah, you guys had gone home for awhile.
(that was for TONI)
Tracie, oh yes, MUSIC jams! 😆 hahaha!!
Faith, We spent the most last Christmas for various reasons, but this year is going to be a huge crunch with all three kids to buy for. Last year we didn’t do much for O b/c he was still so little he had no clue what was going on. Now all three of them are going to have equal amounts spent on them and then there’s the whole “sending stuff back home” issue to contemplate. ugh.
And yes, I am lucky Jake likes Christmas so much. I just wish he put that much effort into every other holiday as well!
For Halloween I will just take the boys around the block in their outfits. Jake will be gone to a 2 week school then so it’ll just be me and the boys. Kinda sucks.
I love the jammies Brandy! I like to do the same thing for my boys but I don’t always want to spend a ton so I am going to check out Wal-mart. Miss you lots and hope all is well.
I LOVE Christmas. You inspired me. I want to go buy Christmas jams now. And start listening to Christmas music. Last year some of my friends and I went Christmas caroling. LOL! I could blog about that experience. Phew… so why am I going down memory lane here? Hehehe, because I LOVE Christmas that’s why!
Little One – this is precious – you and jake need jammies like the kids! Aways remember the “Reason for the Season!” God bless!
I didn’t use to like Christmas..bah hum bug! 😆 kids change that in a person..and now I am more excited for it to come than them…but hey I want to shop too! wish you and I could go shop at walmart…what fun!?!?! Walmart would never be the same! 🙂
yeah, i agree Christmas is truly one of the season we are looking forward..here in the Philippines we celebrate it not only because it was the day of birth of Jesus Christ.but rather a commemoration of God’s love and salvation , that He promised us..Christmas here is a long month celebration.some starting to put up their Christmas tree or decors as early as Sept. and remove them by the month of February..
Godbless
Rhosie, thanks for stopping by! 😀 Christmas Trees up from September to February?!?! 😯 oh my wow! That is a long time! I set mine up the weekend of Thanksgiving or the first weekend in December. The sooner the better. 😉 I usually take it down the day after Christmas. Mostly b/c I’ve always had a baby around and I just want it down. No telling this year though! 😉
look at you planning ahead so much.
i typically love christmas. always have. last year was so hard for me, though, and by christmas i just didn’t feel very christmassy. for the first time ever, i didn’t decorate my house at all.
i’m still on the fence for this christmas. maybe because of amy’s kids here i’ll feel “obligated” to. i don’t know … we’ll see.