Oh Martha! Oh Christmas!

Happy post holidays y'all.

The most wonderful time of the year is over. ;) I hope you're all drowning in introspection and self loathing so you can make your New Years resolutions. I am kidding bytheway

I love the holidays. Well, I love the build up to Christmas anyway. I love the whirlwind of preparations and decorations. Present wrapping is a bust, as I still don't understand how to get smooth corners. I'm a lost cause in the wrapping department. But I do it with heart and slap ribbons on with gusto to make up for it. I love Christmas music, so long as it is rather classic and has nothing to do with kissing Santa Claus or is sung by a boy band. I fret my days of enjoying boy bands openly are over, and any affection I harbor for One Direction only gets creepier as the years pass by.
I loooooove people posting pictures of their crying children on Santa's lap.Is that bad? I love watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Both versions if you must know. There's a certain lovable quality to the cartoon version though, I think it's the Grinch's poochy cartoon belly.
I only support the old version of Miracle on 34th street. The version with the girl who played Matilda is far too precocious for me. Natalie Wood all the way if you know what I mean.
I love Christmas lights-except for my neighbors naughty Santa in the tub- I pray for hooligans to steal it every year. And thus far, I have not proven righteous enough for that to come true.
I have rather mixed feelings on Christmas treats. You know what I mean, when all your neighbors bring various cookies and candies and goodies with a holiday note on them? Unless that's mostly a Southern Utah thing, then maybe you don't know what I mean. When the treats first start getting delivered, I feel nothing but gracious feelings. People who bring you chocolate are my kinda folks. But as time goes on, and the pile of treats grows, I find myself growing resentful. Get this crap out of my house! I'm sick of it! Every ding of the doorbell represents another plate to be added to the pile. All I want is for just one kind soul to deliver a salad. Not because there aren't vegetables in the house, just because it'd be refreshing.

But let's talk about snow. Rather rudely it held out on us until the last possible second, meaning there was no satisfaction in listening to White Christmas, and what a travesty that is! Take heart, there is *almost* always snow in the mountains. The twins and I took quite an enjoyable trip up Cedar mountain to feel the winter wonderland aesthetic. Snowy mountain scenes make me feel all heart emoji inside, lest you wonder my feelings on that.

We had our Christmas Eve dinner, which almost always includes some kind of beef. Are you even surprised, considering we run cattle? ;) This year it was steak, with a dessert of steak-if you ask my father anyhow.
We read Luke 2, as per usual. But, I've grown rather accustomed to hearing it in a booming Grandpa Wallace voice I wonder if anything will ever measure up.

When, do you suppose, I stopped owning real pajamas? I never realize my lack of cutesy sleepwear until Christmas. Additionally, how silly is it to receive the Harry Potter series for Christmas as a 20 year old? I mean I'm only, what 8 or more years behind on that trend haha. I was sooo convinced as the books were coming out when I was a kid that I wouldn't like them, that I didn't read them. And then they became so wildly popular that I refused to, in a ridiculous hipster/pious/holier than thou fashion.
But, I finally have read them, and liked them waaaaay more than is probably appropriate. I am a Ravenclaw according to some internet quiz, which is nifty. I can ramble and wax non-eloquently about these dang books for probably ever, it's honestly concerning. Sign of a pre-quarter life crisis? Or a pre-quarter revelation? I'll spare you my manifesto of feelings, suffice it to say, Snape is my absolute favorite character, and I find myself giving Dumbledore serious side-eye pretty much always. So there is that.

Better than teenage wizards, I got a vintage set of children's books from the antique shop. Goooorrgeous illustrations! I think what I love the very best about vintage books,besides their lovable musty smell, is when you come across signs of the previous owner. There's some childish scribbles on a few pages and an elegant scroll of an adult on the front cover. Best of all, there was a verrry old bridal shower invitation inside Alice in Wonderland. Just tucked in the pages years ago and forgotten. I love that.
We will not discuss how many watches I got. Because I do not have an addiction. And that is all I want to say about that.
-And technically it wasn't a Christmas present, but my Aunt Cherene gave me a 1932 Nancy Drew book. I mean, could you just die? It's absolutely darling! Everyone should have an Aunt Cherene I think-