Holidays Ho

On November 7th I heard my first holiday song. It was far too soon. We had just removed the last vestige of Halloween from the house, and hadn't yet ordered a turkey for Thanksgiving. "Last Christmas" was the last thing I wanted to have playing in my head.

Flash forward three weeks and with waning leftovers, it is time to ramp up the Yuletide spirit. In our household we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas. To ensure a level playing field between the holidays I introduced my boys to Hanukkah stockings. Yes, Hanukkah Harry comes to our house eight nights in a row and brings stocking stuffers.

As much as I loved stockings when I was a kid. The present opening process could get quite tedious on Christmas day ... so there are huge benefits to extending the gift getting for eight to nine days (this year Hanukkah begins on the 21st so it overlaps with Christmas). 

Santa then comes on Christmas Eve with the big presents. I usually try to keep it to only a few, but really special toys that the boys really want. This year Caleb is getting the Lego Black Pearl, and Xander is getting a magic set.

Keeping with my mom's tradition, I started Holiday shopping in August. Living in the Internet age makes it super easy. I kept wish lists for the boys on Amazon.com. Over the last three months I added items and deleted items until I had the perfect concoction of holiday delight. For example, I can go overboard a bit with Legos with my five year old Lego-maniac. I don't want either of us to suffer from Lego fatigue (especially since I'm the one who has to assemble the masterpieces). So I was able to keep the total this year to four (two for Caleb and two for Xander).

Amazon.com notified us when the items went on sale and by doing this we saved some money. We also are part of Amazon Prime so we don't pay shipping and as always there is no sales tax.  I also got all my shopping done before Black Friday and didn't have to set foot in a store.

Yesterday we rolled out the holly, and decorated the house (everything but the Xmas tree, poinsettias and wreath). Living things we tend to put off until the middle of December to ensure that they make it to January 1st.

As soccer ends this coming weekend, we'll be able to refocus on fun Holiday excursions, like the festival of lights at Vasona Park, ice skating in downtown San Jose and the model trains at California Railroad Museum.

I'm finally in the Holiday spirit ... although I still am not ready to hear "Last Christmas."