The Christmas Towels

This past weekend we decided to go get our Christmas tree and set up our house for Christmas. It's been a long standing tradition around here to do this on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Since our house guests had gone home on Friday and we had no plans on Sunday we decided it was a great day to go for it.





We went to a beautiful tree farm and cut down our tree. We brought it home and got it set up. Then we proceeded to pull out the SEVEN large rubbermaid bins from the attic which were all full of Christmas stuff {yes, I think it's too much and am trying to downsize a bit this year!}.





The girls were super eager to help and started pulling things out of boxes right away. Now, in case you've never heard me say this, I am a bit of a control freak. I know, I know, you're totally shocked {hahahah - NOT!}. Anyhow, I am one of those people who likes to set the Christmas stuff up JUST SO. I want to arrange and move things and play around with the placement until I'm totally happy that it looks just how I wanted it. But I also recognize that the girls are getting older and want to be a part of the whole process of Christmas decorating more and more.





Oh yeah, I should back up slightly ... the night BEFORE our decorating we went out to this super fun Oldies dance with some friends of ours {I think it's funny that I would enjoy an oldies dance SO much more than a current music dance! Must be getting OLD!}, the girls spent the time with some friends and every one of us had a fantastic night. But, we didn't get home until ONE AM! And I have quickly learned I am TOO OLD to stay out that late! Unfortunately, my internal body clock doesn't know the meaning of 'sleep in' and I was wide awake as usual at 7am. Going to sleep at 1:30am ... getting up at 7:00am = somewhat cranky Mama!

OK, back to the decorating. Decorating for Christmas is a BIG endeavor, as I mentioned, we have 7 huge bins full of Christmas stuff. Plus, there is all the regular, everyday decor that is already filling the house, then you add in the fall decor that needs to be put away for another year. So imagine my little house filled with bins, candles, vases, snowmen, pine needles, ornaments, books, etc etc etc. The place was a WRECK!

We all worked together, but I was just sorta of edgy because of all the mess {and the control issue!}. I would get a little snappy with my family from time to time and was just feeling more head-achy as the day went on. Finally we pulled out a couple mini trees for the girl's rooms, along with some small Christmas village pieces that I also let them have in their rooms ... so they went off to their rooms VERY happily and got busy setting up all their own Christmas decor. Finally, I had a little time to do my own decorating!

Then came dinner time ... we decided to heat up some leftovers which we had from eating out at lunchtime. All of the sudden everyone wanted to eat MY leftovers and I may or may not have had a little mini tantrum about how it was MY food, MY leftovers and *I* wanted them! {It sounds so much worse written out!}

So basically what I'm saying here is that this cranky, over tired Mama was not so nice to her family on a day that should have been filled with fun and memories. Yeah, I blew it. And I think they knew I was maxed out with the mess because they even busted their butts trying to clean up the house before bedtime.

I got the girls all tucked in bed, took a couple Advil for my headache, and walked into the bathroom to pee and saw ... the Christmas towels. I hadn't even seen them come out of a box, but apparently one of my girls saw them, took them out and went and hung them nicely in the bathroom. And then I smiled. Smiled and thought, what sweet girls I have. And then I was sad ...remembering how horribly I treated them today. :(

And in the morning, I asked the girls and Bob to come see me ... I told them I was thankful for all they had done the day before ... and then I said, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry I was overtired and cranky. And I love you. Very much.'

And they still love me ... this old lady who dances to the oldies and can't stay up too late and gets a little possessive of my leftovers and is a bit controlling with decor and messes up all the time. Yep, they love me.