Halloween is over!

Halloween is finally over!  I hate to admit that it is my least favorite holiday and if I could completely skip it, I would.  Especially now that my kids aren’t even bringing me home bags of candy to hunt for the Almond Joy and Skittles in.  The only saving grace of Halloween is candy corn.  Oh and Scream Eggs since Cadbury finally wised up and realized that us addicts will still eat them even if the insides are green.  Why aren’t they including Cadbury eggs in every holiday?  Do they need ideas?  I can give suggestions.  Cadbury turkey eggs for Thanksgiving - bonus sized!  Cadbury Dream Eggs for Christmas - “While visions of Cadbury eggs danced in their heads”.  Cadbury Snowmen for January - bonus two sections!  Cadbury hearts for Valentine’s.  I can keep going, but you get the picture.  See, now I talked about candy and got off topic.

Halloween is FINALLY over!  No more creepy costumes or decorations.  No more scary movies - seriously, is the only good Halloween movie Hocus Pocus or is it just me?  And finally we can start talking about Christmas!  The best season of the year.  Tim may have found out about my obsession with Christmas when we moved.  I think that even after consolidating I was around 7 - 9 totes worth of decorations.  And between the two of us I think we have 4 Christmas trees in all sizes.  I might start decorating this weekend.  I’m even going to put up my village for the first time in forever - I finally have a place! And my snowman collection has a dedicated spot.  My grandma’s porcelain Christmas tree is going up and the nativity (all 3 of them) Is it any surprise I wanted a winter themed wedding?  

And Christmas carols, we need to start playing and listening to Christmas carols.  No time to waste.  Bring on “Winter Wonderland” to “Up on the Housetop”.  My Pandora is tuned and ready, my playlist is on my phone, maybe my new work out mix can even be Christmas themed…. So many favorites, too many to list them all.  I do have to say that it doesn’t get any better than “O Holy Night” - hope the new neighbors don’t complain about me belting that one out as I decorate.  

Is it too early to start baking?  I’ve been pinning cookie recipes for a year now.  They freeze well right? What are your favorite cookies?  I think this year I will be brave and try my grandma’s sour cream sugar cookies again.  A family and personal favorite.  What I wouldn’t give to have had a Norwegian relative though.  I’ve never learned how to make some favorites of mine like rosettes and krumkake.  Both might be a little out of my realm of expertise so I rely on bake sales to get my fix.  

Christmas movies.  I’m going to pick a favorite, “Elf”!  But so many good ones that I can’t wait to watch again, “Home Alone”, “Christmas With the Kranks”, “The Grinch”, I could go on and on.  I still love the old classics like Rudolph and Little Drummer Boy.  Those take me back to my childhood and cold winter nights in the big A-frame in the country and waiting for NBC or ABC to carry the holiday classics.  The new ones are good, but nothing beats “Frosty the Snowman”.

Gift giving.  I love shopping and buying gifts for my loved ones. I love trying to come up with the perfect gift that I think they will love.  I must be pretty great at it for Libby. Because all the gifts I have bought her that she has already found she has loved.  Like the book I bought her the other day.  As she dug through my bag and pulls it out going, “I’ve wanted this forever!”  I whip around and yell at her “That’s a Christmas gift!” and she giggles gleefully and says “Not anymore” (or something along those lines).  It’s her, every year….

Halloween is over, Thanksgiving is around the corner and Christmas is on the horizon!  Do you know how many shopping days until Christmas?