Christmastime at the Mayos

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone we are jumping right into Christmas. I had actually started decorating the house and listening to Christmas music last week...the first year ever doing so before Thanksgiving. I think because Titus is at such a fun age right now, discovering everything, I'm so anxious for Christmas. I have most of my shopping finished and am trying to make myself hold off on the wrapping. We were planning to wait until Sunday to get our tree, but...went out today for it instead. I've always loved going out to get a tree each year. As a child I remember going with my mom, sister and brother. My mom always wanted the perfect tree. We would walk up and down the rows of trees trying to find the perfect one for our house. We always cut one down. I don't remember ever buying an already cut tree. When Steve and I got married we continued the tradition of cutting our own tree (and searching for the perfect one). I would drag him up and down the hills of trees, never able to make up my mind. Last year we didn't get a tree. We decided that since we would be leaving to spend the holidays with our family before Christmas day that it made more sense not to buy a tree. This year with Titus, I knew I wanted to get one. A place opened up across the road from us last week selling trees. They are, of course, already cut and shipped in. Even so, we had fun walking around the trees searching for one that would be ours. Titus didn't quite know what to make of it. He went around looking at and touching many of them. Steve would ask him, "do you want this one?" and he would shake his head no. Finally we chose one that is about 5 feet tall and just the right size for our little home. We laughed at how small it looked as Steve stuffed it in his trunk and then carried it up the steps to our front door. However once we got it set up it looked just right. I wasn't sure what ornaments I would use since we have tile floors and I didn't want to hang my glass balls. I found some snowflakes that I had hung on garland in the past years and some bead snowflakes from my collection. As a finishing touch we threw fake fluffy snow all over. So my theme this year for our tree is...snow. Titus doesn't seem to be too taken by it so hopefully it will stay intact. I did tell him at one point to "go sit next to the tree" so I could take a picture and he did just that. It will be fun to see his face in the morning when he first sees it again. I am loving every minute of seeing Titus experience Christmas this year. The excitement on his face is just magical. My favorite memories from my childhood are all centered around Christmastime. My mom always made it a special and exciting time for us. My goal is to do the same for Titus.