'Tis the season

Unlike most retail outlets and radio stations, we have refused to give in to this growing pandemonium of "Christmas Creep." It seems every year the holiday season gets moved up earlier and earlier that I wouldn't be surprised to hear caroling before Halloween. But at the Parsons' household we have maintained proper Holiday decorum and waited until after the turkey was cooked and devoured to turn our attention to Christmas.

We're excited that Megan is obviously more involved this year in the activities. She obviously won't remember anything from this year, except through pictures but it's so wonderful to have her 'helping' out with setting up the Christmas decorations.

(needing a taller person to straighten the top of the tree)

The majority of the interior is now officially ready. We're still figuring out the details on the outdoor lights, but rest assured, once they go up, there will be pictures of that event as well. Megan helped Jillian out with setting up and decorating the tree. It's so cute to see her examining all the ornaments on the tree. We were brave enough to put them all the way to the bottom of the tree, hoping if we just tell her 'no touch' she would follow our directives. The next morning when she handed me one of the ornaments after breakfast I knew we still had a bit of teaching to do, but since then, two days later, all ornaments are present and accounted for so far.

One of our ornaments is from a trip we took to Gatlinburg and it has a picture of a bear on it in homage to the bear that traipsed through the backyard of our chalet. Megan has become infatuated with the ornament, because I made a 'rawr' noise imitating a bear when she first saw it. Now, at least 4 times a day, she walks up to it and says, "RAWR." So adorable.

She DID want to make sure I gave her credit for hanging Espen' stocking though. I don't think she quite understands the concept of why we're hanging these up on the mantle, but she didn't care when she saw the little dog on the stocking. All she knew was that was her responsibility.

(No, we didn't get another dog. Jillian's brother and wife brought their dog, Gizmo, to visit)

Of course all that work did tire her out. So where better to take a quick nap but in the dog bed. Hmm, probably not the best place, but I like the creative problem solving.

So after a few hours of hard work by Jillian, and a few minutes by Megan, we're ready for the holidays. And only one more day until I've officially posted an entry every day for a month. Whew.