The Best Way To Spread Christmas Cheer, Is Singing Loud For All To Hear

I know, everything's so blue but frankly, I got sick of the other colors. They made me want to puke. And blue always puts me in a wintery, Christmasy mode. (On a side note, no, I did not do the Rudolph up there. It's from a wallpaper I got from Deviant Art. I loved it so much I thought I'd make a layout out of it.)

On to business.

I'm going to join everybody else in saying that I can't believe it's December. Sometimes, it feels like only yesterday since we moved down here. And I won't even get into the fact that it was almost a year ago that we actually made the decision to move. I guess time flies when you're having fun. *grins*

Regardless, I'm happy the holiday season is here. Next to Halloween and my birthday, Christmas is one of my favorites. I've had all of my decorations, including my tree, up since Thanksgiving and everything is all lit up and sparkly both inside the house and out. I love driving around town and seeing all the lights. It's very festive. On a side note, since we're talking about Christmas decorations, I want to reiterate something that veteran readers to my site may already know.

I despise those blow up yard decorations. DESPISE THEM! I have never liked them and everytime I see one or more of them clustered on people's lawns, I want to get a dart gun and pop them. It's so bad that it's actually become a running joke in my family. Everyone looks at me expectantly when we drive by a yard with them, waiting for me to roll my eyes and make gagging noises. I prefer simple and classic - white lights, green garlands and red bows. Or, on a different note, if you're going to be Clark Griswold, I can handle the sparkling of the many colored lights and being able to see them from down the street. Don't take away from that by adding those hideous blow up decorations. I could ALMOST handle the big, old retro lights in place of them but even that's pushing it.

Other than that, I really have no rants about the Christmas season, aside from not having much money, but isn't that the case for everyone? There's quite a few events approaching that I'm really excited about, partly because they seem fun and partly because they give us something to look forward to.

I'm especially excited to be able to spend Christmas with my family without having to fly home. Of course, on an equally sad note, we unfortunately won't be able to make it back North for Christmas, so we will be missing Steve's family terribly. But we will make it back, so that gives us hope. I think we're going to spend Christmas weekend at my parents so we can go to the Festival of Lights, which has become a yearly tradition for us. I also want to spend Christmas Eve there because I don't know about ya'll, but Santa still comes to visit us and I want to be there Christmas morning to see what he brought. *smiles*

We've got a small road trip to North Carolina in the works for the weekend of the fifteenth. I've got family there that I need to see so it will give us a nice break. We haven't gone any further than Myrtle Beach since we got down here so a change of scenery will be nice. And this coming up weekend, we have a football game and my company holiday party as well as the local holiday parade and tree lighting. A busy, busy month ahead!

Speaking of football, I am very proud to say that not only did my little brother kick complete butt in his regular season, but he made it to All Stars for the town and has spent the last three weeks competing against leagues from across the Charleston area. And they have won all three games. I'm not 100% sure how this works, because we haven't had a chance to talk to the coach, but I think if he wins next weeks game, he goes to the State championship (which, from what I'm gather, would actually be the Lower State championship - I think they split it between upper and lower SC). Regardless, we are so very proud of him! Love you kiddo!

And while we're on a proud note, I just wanted to say that part of the reason I was gone most of November is because I was participating in NaNoWriMo. For those of you new to the game, it's something that's been going on for quite a few years and basically, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, from November 1st to the 30th. You don't win anything except a cool little icon and a certificate but you get the satisfaction of pushing yourself to write and reaching that goal. And ladies and gentleman, I reached the goal. The story's not completely finished but I'm working on the ending and will have it finished soon. But I'm just so proud of myself for doing it because I really, really thought it was going to be something that I just let fall to the wayside, like I've had the tendency to do with a bunch of other projects. But I didn't. I stated focused and determined and I completed it and I can't tell you how good that feels.

But now I'm sitting on a goldmine of stuff that I want to write about here. It's been building and building and I think one of my next goals is going to be to try and get at least fifteen posts completed this month. That's one every other day. It's doable. I was going to do one every day but I'm already a little late for that.

So keep checking back. Now that I have a facelift here and the NaNo project lifted, I'll definitely be using this as an outlet for all the holiday stress that I'm sure will build up.

Because that's really what it's for, right?