Gingerbread and Jingle Bells

Today is the perfect day for Christmas movies, making gingerbread and jangling jingle bells, Dear Readers. Urkey Day is in the rearview mirror and Santa's Village is on the horizon! It is time for Christmas movies, Manhattans and indulging in yum, yum, yummy treats. This weekend should be about gathering up ALL your Christmas decorations, arranging them and throwing them away. Wait. What? Yep! Today, right this very minute, stop reading this very thoughtful blog and go get something to throw away. Okay. Okay. Donate it if it makes you feel better. Leave it on your neighbor's doorstep, bring it to the office to decorate someone's desk you don't like, I don't care. Just get it out of your house!

Today, a rare thing happened. I took my own advice. Today, I am proud to say, I sorted through the boxes and boxes of ornaments and cheerfully dumped the ones we no longer use. We no longer use certain ornaments and decorations because they are ugly and cheap and have no real meaning. I kept the ornaments and decorations my mother made, I made, our kids made, my grandma made or are special. I kept the "first" ornaments. You know the ones right? The first Christmas together, baby's first Christmas, first Christmas in your first home, first, first ornament, and so on, etc., etc., etc.. I am not completely heartless, just ready to ditch stuff.

When you decorate your home for the holidays, try and ditch (to donate, or ditch to ditch or ditch to recycle) some of your decorations. I bet you will find your holiday season will be just a little bit brighter.