Let me start by saying the most important part of Christmas is celebrating the birth of Christ. I mean, without His birth there would be no death and, without His death, there's no remission of sin. In other words, without Christmas there is no Easter... Those two holidays are the most important reasons to celebrate ever.
I get it. I have taken years to ensure my daughter completely understands the real reason for the season. I also like to center most of our family traditions around the holidays that matter most to our faith. We want our child to have a faith-filled life so we focus our fun around faith-filled days of the year.
All that said, Hubbs loves Christmas. He starts to make mention of it about six months out.
"WOW. Can you believe Christmas is almost here?"
Hubbs loves everything about Christmas.
With this in mind, I knew he was serious when he mentioned outdoor décor. I told you about our Thanksgiving here... Well, we didn't plan to spend the night at my parents' so we woke up Black Friday and headed up the road. Hubbs dropped Munch and I off at home so he could run some Christmas errands (toldya, he's mildly obsessed with the holiday) and, while he was away, I sent him texted images of me in all of my unshowered glory, lol:
"Sir, I saw you eyeballing me from over that turkey and I just wanted to tell you that I'm married."
Anyhoo, he responded to my text messages and immediately called to fuss that rather than sending him hot pics, I should be showering because we have things to do, LOL. You know how I get when my hair is straight.
WHATEVER.
Later that afternoon, we went on the hunt for outdoor décor. Hubbs insisted we start at Big Lots. We entered the store, the kid squealed with excitement and ran to the blow-up Santa.
I know I mentioned that I was willing to embrace tacky holiday décor because my child loves it a few weeks back (on Halloween) but... well... "what about the lovely wreaths with red bows? Don't you wanna look at those?"
No response from either the man or the child.
Hubbs: "I would go classy and pick the blow-up Rudolph... It looks just like the one in our favorite cartoon, Z."
Rudolph?
Blow-up?
Throw up.
We walked around disagreeing on décor for another 15 minutes before deciding to head to the next store. Imagine repeating this same exchange in Home Depot, Lowe's, Target and Walmart before eventually deciding to call it quits and head home.
With nothing.
On the way home, Munch fell asleep (it was close to 11:00 at night) and I wanted to talk to Hubbs about the process for decorating.
"We need a plan. We can't just willy-nilly show up to a store and pick out some random thing, plug it up and be done. Decorating takes work. You don't even know how much décor you need. I'm thinking wreaths and candles in each window, garland around the garage doors, a few white lights and a fabulous wreath on the door. Do you hear that? It's a plan."
His response?
"Whatever you want. I guess that's what this is all about. Whatever YOU like. You don't like the stuff WE like so whatever will make YOU happy. Right? That's what I'm supposed to say, right? If it isn't what you like it isn't nice, right? Who cares if it's fun, right? Who cares if you're making it special for your child, right? It's gotta be nice. EVERYTHING. ALL THE TIME. So, don't talk to me about a plan when you're just going to shoot it down even if I did have one -- O and let me guess. I'M THE ONE who has to hang all this crap outside, right? The one who has NO say but has to do all the work. RIGHT?! You're like a new-age GRINCH. You do know we'll have plenty of time to have your old lady decorations, right? How much longer will we be able to have the blow-up Minnie and Mickey? HUH?! Exactly."
Yep. You see it. He said it... had the nerve to call me - ME - a Grinch. All I wanted was for it to look nice. Classy. Pretty.
Is that too much to ask?! I didn't say anything else. We rode in silence to pick up our nieces and nephews for a sleepover.
I planned to take my control freak-ness out on my Mom tree. You know, the tree that is reserved JUST for me. The one I decorate by MYself to ensure ornament placement is perfect. The one the other two better not even THINK about touching. Ever. Yes, that one.
Maybe his little Grinch comment got to me and made me more willing to accept the help my nephew offered. Maybe it was his sweet smile that made him swindle me into accepting. MAYBE he just started picking up ornaments and sticking them on the tree without my approval... WHATEVER THE CASE, I had help with my Mom tree this year and here's your proof:
I liked the help. I liked the giggles at my fun ornaments and the scurry from the ornament box to the tree... This sweet moment made me realize making a house a home is all about compromise. I really enjoy Hubbs' excitement this time of year. I would hate for him to be grumpy hubby (because he's good at it, lol). Shoot, I knew what I had to do.
Stay tuned for more tomorrow!
I know I mentioned that I was willing to embrace tacky holiday décor because my child loves it a few weeks back (on Halloween) but... well... "what about the lovely wreaths with red bows? Don't you wanna look at those?"
No response from either the man or the child.
Hubbs: "I would go classy and pick the blow-up Rudolph... It looks just like the one in our favorite cartoon, Z."
Rudolph?
Blow-up?
Throw up.
We walked around disagreeing on décor for another 15 minutes before deciding to head to the next store. Imagine repeating this same exchange in Home Depot, Lowe's, Target and Walmart before eventually deciding to call it quits and head home.
With nothing.
On the way home, Munch fell asleep (it was close to 11:00 at night) and I wanted to talk to Hubbs about the process for decorating.
"We need a plan. We can't just willy-nilly show up to a store and pick out some random thing, plug it up and be done. Decorating takes work. You don't even know how much décor you need. I'm thinking wreaths and candles in each window, garland around the garage doors, a few white lights and a fabulous wreath on the door. Do you hear that? It's a plan."
His response?
"Whatever you want. I guess that's what this is all about. Whatever YOU like. You don't like the stuff WE like so whatever will make YOU happy. Right? That's what I'm supposed to say, right? If it isn't what you like it isn't nice, right? Who cares if it's fun, right? Who cares if you're making it special for your child, right? It's gotta be nice. EVERYTHING. ALL THE TIME. So, don't talk to me about a plan when you're just going to shoot it down even if I did have one -- O and let me guess. I'M THE ONE who has to hang all this crap outside, right? The one who has NO say but has to do all the work. RIGHT?! You're like a new-age GRINCH. You do know we'll have plenty of time to have your old lady decorations, right? How much longer will we be able to have the blow-up Minnie and Mickey? HUH?! Exactly."
Yep. You see it. He said it... had the nerve to call me - ME - a Grinch. All I wanted was for it to look nice. Classy. Pretty.
Is that too much to ask?! I didn't say anything else. We rode in silence to pick up our nieces and nephews for a sleepover.
I planned to take my control freak-ness out on my Mom tree. You know, the tree that is reserved JUST for me. The one I decorate by MYself to ensure ornament placement is perfect. The one the other two better not even THINK about touching. Ever. Yes, that one.
Maybe his little Grinch comment got to me and made me more willing to accept the help my nephew offered. Maybe it was his sweet smile that made him swindle me into accepting. MAYBE he just started picking up ornaments and sticking them on the tree without my approval... WHATEVER THE CASE, I had help with my Mom tree this year and here's your proof:
I liked the help. I liked the giggles at my fun ornaments and the scurry from the ornament box to the tree... This sweet moment made me realize making a house a home is all about compromise. I really enjoy Hubbs' excitement this time of year. I would hate for him to be grumpy hubby (because he's good at it, lol). Shoot, I knew what I had to do.
Stay tuned for more tomorrow!
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