Welcome back silly season!!

Black Friday traditionally opens the holiday season for a lot of Americans. NOT the Mahoney's!! It's not that we don't 'do' crowds. It's not that we don't like to shop...au contraire! It's not that we dread the seasonal hoop-la and over-commercialization. It's something really BASIC! Starting with Mari's December 1st birthday, we have a total of FIVE more birthdays to celebrate before it's Christmas and TWO of them...well counting Auntie Peggy( who might as well live here) there are THREE... in this house!!!!! December is both the month that never ends as well as the month that flies by waaaaaaay too fast. I was sternly warned by Auntie Peggy, who's December 12th birthday gave her the authority on the matter, after discovering that both of our children were to be December babies that there were to be no Birthday/Christmas presents NOR joint parties!!! Being just ever so slightly older than Peggy, I witnessed the raw deal she got when it came to having a December birthday, so every year I 'get' to squeeze birthday present shopping and party planning into an already crowded month! Yeah, yeah I can hear some of you saying " so do it in October or November in anticipation". As soon as Auntie Peggy finishes wiping her eyes from the laughter, she will read that I am publicly acknowledging (AGAIN) that 'procrastination' really should be my middle name. So my days tend to fly by as I'm 'plate spinning' as fast as I can but the evenings seem to never end with parties, cantatas, caroling, tree lightings, more parties, and even more parties. The net result...... SILLINESS!!! Too much food, too much sugar, too little sleep...you name all the precursors and I can say "check" after each and every one! Sometimes they cannot even stand because the laughter engulfs them! See what I mean?? It's early yet to even mention this but no one has suffered any injuries just yet....but there's time still to add E.R. visits into the already overflowing schedule. Yep, even the adults have trouble keeping their composure around here in December! This would be Auntie Jenny mocking Mari's 'standard' pose after opening each of her gifts! But only the lady with the 'hair' obsession added recycled bling! I do get brief moments of calm in which I can record their lives. We're doing a kind of a slow job on decorating our tree. It's been up for three days now and just tonight we got to ornament hanging! Bedtime arrived before we finished so it drags on yet another day!!! As they hang the ornaments there is a LOT of reminiscing! They each have a couple of ornaments that they dive into the box to find and hang first and then they have that one or two that just 'speak' to them! Yes, there are more than a few horse themed ornaments on our tree!!!!! Just a few fashionista themed ones as well! No, haven't come across too many with a 'hair' theme.... and then we're right back into the silliness!!!! (Note, a break with TRADITION in that our 3 Kings have already 'made' it to the manger! We usually have them 'travel' around the living room all month and don't place them near the manger until Little Christmas. Baby Jesus is already in attendance too...the girls just felt like they wanted the 'tableau' all month.) All the while I'm refereeing, Patrick is obsessing about the lights that we have used on this same tree for SIX years now without even a hint of singe let alone a fire!!! This from a man who's fondest memories of Christmas are gathering holly branches to set on the window sill where a jelly jar with a candle waited to be lit at dusk on Christmas Eve. Yeah, the bulbs are a fire risk but a LIT candle behind CURTAINS is just fine???? ....and we're right back into silliness!!! Any wonder bedtime arrived before all the ornaments were hung? Gotta go, Julia's party invitations need to be designed, printed, AND addressed TONIGHT! Just finalized (with a very SPECIAL locale) for a December 12th date which means I'm soooo not giving the guests very much notice this year....sigh, so what else is new?!?! You know I gotta end a post with a quick peek at my latest outfit on eBay.... Decided to do up a holiday outfit that showed the 'reason for the season'! It's a 3T very full, twirly top featuring a manger applique paired with jeans that have ruffles and appliques of the drummer boy and a lamb. I have a couple of cute vintage Santa knot-style jumpers that are 90% done and I REALLY need to get them done and listed before it's too late!!!