Home for the Holidays

I've decided that the only way to get my house clean is to host a party.

Seriously. Without a looming deadline and the risk of total embarrassment, we might never address that pile of clirty clothes that collects in our bedroom.

What? You've never heard of "clirty" clothes? Well, imagine a sweater that you've worn only once after washing it. It's not exactly clean...but it probably isn't dirty, either. You could totally wear it again...but if you needed to round out a load of delicates, you'd throw it in the washing machine while you had the chance.

The wishy-washy status of clirty clothes leads to some strange logic and behaviors at our house. We seem to believe that clirty clothes don't deserve to reside with the clean clothes in our drawers and closets. But we don't want such items mixing with the truly dirty stuff in the hamper, either.

So, naturally, clirty clothes end up on the floor.

Yup. We're weird.

What was I talking about again?

Oh yeah, parties! So far this fall and winter, we've hosted Rowan's birthday party, a Halloween party and — just today — a tree-trimming party!


Both sides of our family joined us for a day of Christmas fun! I served egg bake, caramel rolls and fruit for brunch. Mmmm.

I put a pretty poinsettia on the table, along with two rather bizarre electric candles that I got on clearance at Target. They flicker and smell like apple cinnamon. A little odd, yes, but at least they didn't singe the poinsettia leaves or burn the kiddos.


After each of us ate at least three caramel rolls, we trimmed the tree! Maddox liked to be lifted up high to reach the top branches, while Avery preferred the "every ornament on one branch" approach to decorating. Rowan made sure to comment on the beauty and significance of the ornaments, each of which he assumed was given to us a long long time ago, when he was very little.


When all the ornaments were up, Rowan placed the star on the top of the tree!

True story about our tree: I bought it when Rowan was just two months old. We were living in our first house at the time, and Kyle was being a bit of a grinch about Christmas (and, more specifically, about setting up a real Christmas tree). So we packed Rowan into the car and drove to Menards, where I picked out a perfectly lovely artificial model. When the salesman told us that the tree I had chosen was out of stock, I started crying. No joke. I was a total mess of frustration and new-mom hormones. In the end, the guy sold us the display model for 20 percent off and gave us the lights and garlands for free!

I bought a candelabra to put in our fireplace this year. Less messy than a real fire, that's for sure.

Our Advent calendar is Rowan's favorite Christmas decoration. Why? Because it's filled with chocolates, of course!

The finished room, all warm and cozy for Christmas!

And to conclude this post, I give you a gratuitously adorable photo of B-Rex and Chuckles (Kyle's nicknames for Breck and Charlie).

Here's wishing you a wonderful season filled with family, friends and fun!