Is There an Unspoken Rule, Christmas Decorations After Thanksgiving and Not a Day Before?

The past few years during the holidays I have been working, usually to pay for the holidays. This year I am at home watching my infant niece while my sister is off at work. This allows me to be at home to take care of my family and cater to my kids and husband. I have been getting back to basics, since September I have pulled out all of my old recipes, menus, budgeting tools, you name it, to ease the financial strain of reducing our income to one pay check. I love keeping house, I love cooking and baking from scratch and I love, love, love the art of nesting. The years that I had to work through the holidays there was just not enough time to keep the house tidy and laundry done let alone decorate for the holidays in the fashion I had been accustomed to. Last year in fact, I was working at Costco, during the holidays I was called to work in the bakery. Around the clock pumpkin pies are being produced the week before both Thanksgiving and Christmas! Thousands of crusts being pressed, fillings poured, pies baked and then packaged. Pure madness I tell ya, it really takes the enjoyment out of the season that I live to bake for!

With those days a faint memory, I am giddy with pure joy. Simplicity how I have missed you. We will be entertaining family and friends for Thanksgiving and my mom and dad will return home for most of the month of December. I am itching to put up my Christmas decorations! Maybe not a real tree but definitely my artificIal ones ( I put fake ones up in the kitchen, dining and living rooms, the real one goes in the family room).

Stores have their decor up in full affect. My thought was, "wouldn't it make Thanksgiving even that much more cozier?"

I feel like it would make the Holidays last a little bit longer, something that has been lost in my house the past few years.

So, my question to you, is it too early to decorate for Christmas? Is there an unspoken rule that Christmas cannot go up until the day after Thanksgiving (which I would rather spend in Downtown Seattle)?

KELLY

The Lost Art of Tying a Tie

I start my mornings off with a cup of coffee and Facebook. Last week as I read through everyone's morning posts, I catch a comical banter amongst some of the moms. It happens that this morning, many of us had sons that needed to dress up for an away, middle school (7th and 8th grade) basketball game. The coach requires slacks, button up shirts and ties for these away games. Last year my son wrestled and the same attire was required, as well as band performances.

My good friend goes on to describe her morning with her two teenage sons, attempting to tie a tie, finally relying on You tube to figure out how to get the job done. Along with her post is a picture of her son with the tie stopping dead center of his torso, not even close to his belly button. Now, I am dying with laughter because we had experienced this mania last year. This year we have a clip on and his "good" tie is still tied from last year, just loosened and hanging on a hanger. My good friend is a single mother who shares custody, her ex husband cannot necessarily make it over to tie their sons tie in the early morning. What is our excuse? My husband doesn't know how to tie one either, in fact, whenever we have had a formal event, we beat feet over to my parents house! Unfortunately, they moved across the country a few months ago so we are going to be sc@*%#d if such an occasion arises!

What has happened to us? In "us" I mean lazy, middle class Americans that have lost appreciation for ties and dresses at dinner, dressing up in more than designer jeans for celebrations and gatherings. I thought there were enough of " us" who were required to wear such things to work, as I looked around, not many professionals wear ties anymore, heck, I don't even see them at church anymore. I know living even further out than the suburbs things get a little lax, in the city they may be common place but back in the day, young men just knew how to tie a tie no matter where they lived.

That morning after sharing in the comic relief, we agreed on one thing...thank God for YouTube tutorials!

Kelly