Christmas Prep at the McAllenby's

I haven't been much in the mood for blogging lately, but I figure if my pal Val can manage to get in a few blogs with her hectic schedule, the least I could do was blog myself. Not to mention I'm feeling the heat from my dear husband.

Not much going on here except the regular hustle and bustle with the pre-Christmas planning. I've managed to get a few cards home in the mail, but still have the packages to send to the family, which I will do by tomorrow or Saturday as the deadline is Monday.

Last weekend Andy and I decided to put the tree up as we don't have the children this weekend and neither of us wants to leave it till the week before Christmas. For the first time we went out and picked out a real tree, something we thought the kids would enjoy (which they did). I had to put the brakes on though when I overheard Andy telling the tree guy that we were looking for a 6 or 7 footer. Getting the 6 footer would be pushing it. And so it was. Our tree is gloriously huge, and we had to do a lot of moving furniture around to make it work. I was only too pleased to take down the big office desk we had in our living room, in honour of replacing it with a much more reasonably sized home computer desk. (Hence the reason we have not yet purchased the big fridge). My only wish is that we had a nice set of curtains instead of the awful brown blinds!!!

Although Andy had to be out of town all day Sunday, we decided that I would go ahead and decorate with the boys because after all, the whole reason we put the tree up was to partake in the decorating with them. Unfortunately, they weren't that interested. Apparently (and according to them) their mother is a fussy tree decorator and prefers to do it herself. I can understand this of course, but Christmas is for the kids. I figure, let them have a go, and if something doesn't look right, fix it when they are in bed. So ultimately, I turned on the Family Stone to get me in the mood, and started decorating. Connor pulled himself away from the movie momentarily to add a bauble on the very lowest, inner branch, down by the stump. I still think its there, actually.

Unfortuntately, this picture doesn't do our tree justice, but the kids look cute under it!

So the tree is up. It looks great, but better yet, it smells great. It smells of Nova Scotia, which is a great comfort to me (even though we never had a real tree at home, I used to help a dear friend pick out and erect hers every year).

The Christmas Spirit

I've been doing a little shopping, and as mentioned previously, have been trying to get my packages home sorted. Next year, I swear I'm doing it in time to send the big package (to Mom's) home via surface mail as it is a ridiculous cost to send airmail. But hey, its only once a year and they are special to me. Maybe next year I can deliver my presents in person. Who knows?

I have however been feeling a little bit homesick over the past week. This is due mostly in part to the fact that we have been experiencing gale-storm wind and rain for nearly a week now, while Nova Scotia has experienced its first snowfall (to be witnessed over at Stacy's 'my pictures' and Tina's Blog. Although these pictures are terrific and I love seeing them, it does make me a little nostalgic for home and all those I love. Maybe, just maybe we will be blessed with a sprinkling for Christmas, which would be just perfect.

In other news, I'm heading out tomorrow evening with the Pink Lady Crew, which consists of my mother-in-law Wendy and our dear friends Beryl and Linda, to enjoy late evening shopping down SeaView Street, which happens to boast my favourite shop 'In The Pink'. The shops are also offering a glass of wine and mince pie to help the unconvinced get in the mood.