Christmas decorations, coffee, coffee and well heck COFFEE!!

Christmas is by far my most favorite holiday season.   I love the meaning behind it, the way people come together and for a brief moment forget differences and celebrate it all together.  The hectic list of things to get done, presents to be wrapped, baking that needs done and the amount of running around and parties to attend it just excites me like no other part of the year.  Maybe this is why I can't wait to get those turkey dishes done so I can scramble around in my garage for the many bins of Christmas decorations and plan the attack on my house to transform it into Christmas.  It literally takes me days to get everything out, organized and put out around the house just to my liking and not every year is the same location or style of decorating.  We have several different types of decorations so each Christmas it all looks just a bit different.

Well you all know how my Thanksgiving went down, so I was super excited to bounce back the next day and start my Christmas.  I was up and out of bed, breakfast in flight and my second cup of coffee in hand before six and was just about to turn on some Christmas music when Alex came stumbling down the stairs looking for me.  We had a pretty late night so I really shouldn't have had all the energy that I did, but dang I was just up and ready to have at it!  He came down and saw that I was way past the point of taking back to bed and just asked that I try to keep Christmas as sane as possible this year with all the extra family that would be with us this year we didn't need to go crazy.  Absolutely my fearful husband, I will keep things simple and fun this year!  (I am pretty sure my fingers were crossed, but I know for sure he didn't 100% believe me so that lets me off the hook too right?)

Our home will be full this Christmas, as we have many new additions and family moving here.  My parents are still under our roof until their home is finished (at this rate may be 2017!).  Aunt Peggy is now staying with us and will move from the east here permanently early next year.  Kaylee is going to spend the month of February back east with Aunt Peggy helping to get her organized, packed and help out as much as she can.  Another perk of home school!  :0)   My parents offered her a spot up in their loft but she has opted to stay in our home up next to Kaylee, which is just perfect as those two are having so much fun together.  Kris, who is now engaged to Kyle is also moving into his old room and saving money for their start in life.  Kyle just moved into his new apartment over the garage and he is loving the privacy.  I do have a confession....  I didn't mean to do it, really I was just being a very helpful Mom!  Bo is now my puppy and he and Jack are my shadows, where I go they pretty much follow.  Both boys sleep in the same big doggy bed on my side of the room and the puppy even fell asleep on Alex the other night and all he did was cover him and fall asleep himself.  So he can't tell me he doesn't like animals anymore, it was a very cute picture that I am going to frame and place for all to see!  :0)

Soooooooo... By noon I had two Christmas trees up and fully decorated, the front porch and entry way was decked out with lights and nativity scene.  I was just getting ready to attack the rest of my living room and kitchen when the men started invading my kitchen for left overs.  So I had to stop what I was doing to save my kitchen (more like save myself a monster clean up session if I had left them to it themselves!) and feed them so I could get back to my decorating.  Kaylee came down while I was shuffling containers and I pulled her in to help so I could be back decorating faster.  Well in the mix of all that I didn't really eat much but I sure did grab another cup or two of coffee.  You know the amount of flavor coffee they store away and only bring out at Christmas, so when you see them at the store you just have to grab them all and try them all to make sure they are as good as the previous year right?  Please tell me I am not the only crazy lady out there that goes nuts over all the fun pumpkin spice mocha and apple pie delight.... :0)

Well let's just say that I have done my duty and tasted all those lovely flavors and they are just as yummy as they were last year.  But my problem is that it usually takes me all winter to do the entire taste testing thing and I did it all in 3 days this year.   (oh yes you read that right... Sigh)  I wasn't even thinking about it or the fact that none of them were decaf and I was just rocking out to my Christmas favorites and decorating my little heart out.  But the first night (Friday) I had my usual night medicine to help me sleep and it took a bit longer to work, but hey I was just on a decorating high and it was all good.  Then the next night (Saturday) it took me three hours of rolling around the bed to finally settle and I was up and going by six again.   Alex was sick on Sunday so we didn't attend church so I was off and running again and of course sipping on my coffee(s) and finishing my Christmas village.   That night we were downstairs watching Sunday night football and when we got up to go to bed, I stood up and maybe took one step and the world went black.  Alex was right next to me and saw all the blood drain from my face and had me before I went down.  I came right back, it was very fast but just scary to be sure.  Unfortunately Alex wasn't feel great himself and felt dizzy too, so when he yelled for help and my Dad came running it was off to the ER with both of us.  Sigh....

Alex had a sinus infection and got some medicine and told to drink lots of fluids.  I got an IV in my arm and lecture after lecture about dehydration and the effects of drinking too much coffee.  So NOT the way I wanted to start the season at all!  Grrrrrr....  So once home and settled my Mom and Kaylee took over and Alex and I spent Monday in bed together resting... Well between all the extra lectures on coffee and how I am not even to look at coffee until the new year he rested.  Trust me, at this point I don't even want to see the stuff let alone see the coffee aisle at the store anytime soon.  Plus that was the day that Alex decided we should Christmas shop together this year and wouldn't it be way more fun doing it that way.... Um, NO!   Next year will mark our 20th wedding anniversary and in all those years together I can tell you we have NEVER and I mean NEVER done any Christmas shopping together.  We don't even grocery shop well together, it should be a clear sign that this was just not going to work right????  Ugh.

Well we did and it was.....adventurous.  Not sure Target will ever be the same and I am pretty sure our  pictures are hanging in their office some place, as a warning to watch out and call for emergency help if sighted in the store ever again.  :0)  But that is another story for anther post as I need to run and get Bo to his training appointment.  He can now sit, lay down and beg (yes that last one is natural but it is so much cuter the way he trains them to beg) on command!  Now if he could just learn to do all his poops outside and not in closets (seriously, we have to keep all closet doors closed or he does his poops in them!!) we would be all set!