Merry and Bright

This year I’ve found myself with the Christmas Spirit in FULL FORCE. If I sing another Christmas carol I think the boyf is going to end it. I’ve boiled it down to a couple of reasons:

1. I finally found the Muppet Christmas Carol on DVD (thanks Amazon). I’ve been looking for this for years, especially since I don’t have a VHS player anymore. Best Christmas Movie EVER.
2. I haven’t seen my family in a long time. TOO long. Like, a year and a half too long. I’m ecstatic to see them come Christmas Eve.
3. I already have my Christmas present (this gorgeous laptop!), which is a mood elevator every time I look at it.

To channel some of this glee I made a gingerbread house for a museum charity fundraiser, which was way larger than it needed to be, but came out alright. I have a little dough left over to make another (smaller) one as a gift. I’ve also picked up some household holiday gear have a little bit of cheer in every room including a couple of large holiday mugs perfect for coffee and hot chocolate in front of the laptop:

and a set of prep bowls from Pier 1 for the large quantities of cookies I’ll be whipping up over the next two weeks:

We’ve put a tree up and put lights on it (colored lights for the first time in years!), but can’t decorate it much more because the cat has climbed it a couple of times, and all of those baubles would probably just throw her over the edge this year. I’ve picked up some of my favorite holiday songs on iTunes and have played them on repeat (top 3: Wham! – Last Christmas, Judy Garland – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas is You) probably to everyone else’s distress. We even picked up a live wreath and hung it on the door today:

With all of this excitement Christmas itself is coming up on me pretty quickly, so I’d better get to gift making. Speaking of which – time to whip up a couple of “test cookies”. ;c)