It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The girls and I put the Christmas tree up today.

I don't have a ton of other Christmas decorations so that is about as festive as it gets in our house.

One of these years I want to purchase more decorations and go all out during the holidays like my parents used to.

I remember when we my parents would decorate for Christmas, it was a weekend project.  The Christmas music would go on and each item would come out.  One at a time.  Mom or dad would give it a fluff and then bring it to it's special place that only it would know for the next 30 days. 

The house always looked so festive and different at Christmas time.  I loved it.

During the season my dad would turn on Christmas music and then sit in his rocking chair and just sit.  I loved laying on the couch in the dark room with him, the only light coming from the tree, Santa house, and nativity scene.  Those days we actually listened to Christmas records so 1/2 way through the album dad would have to get up to flip it over.  We would both just sit there listening to the music and just hanging out.

I never really knew what my dad was thinking about all those days but now being a parent I can only imagine that he probably wasn't thinking about much and instead, being the father of 5 girls, he was probably just enjoying the peace and quiet.

I remember feeling super excited most of those days.  Christmas was a pretty big deal at our house and our parents always went overboard with the gifts.  So, it was only natural that I spent most of those nights dreaming about what kinds of presents were going to be under the tree.  A little selfish now when I look back but isn't that the fun of being a kid? 

It makes me sad that I haven't done more to create holiday memories for my girls. 

I'm not very good at this stuff :-(

I know it's never too late to start but it is all so overwhelming. 

I wanted to make an advent calendar this year but not sure with how busy work has been that I would actually have time to put something together.  I know that I can just go and buy one but that doesn't seem as much fun as making my own. 

Maybe I should try to do that....now that I told you about it, there's more pressure to actually get it done. Right?!