After five looooong months...

I finally got to see my grandma, sisters, brothers-in-law, and my niece!!!
While I was very excited to see all of them, I must admit I was probably most excited to spend some time with my niece. The last time I saw her was over the 4th of July and I'm sure you all know how much a little girl changes between 15 and 20 months of age. After hearing all sorts of wonderful stories from my sisters and parents about all the fun things she's been doing over the last 5 months, I was dying to see her for myself! I even had a dream the week before Thanksgiving that I yelled at my mother and younger sister, telling them that they were to leave Addie and I alone, that it was our day to spend together, and to stay away. Yeah. I'm officially the crazy possessive aunt. I'm not proud.

But I was overjoyed to see my darling girl! I got hugs and kisses, I got led around the house by one finger, and I got lots and lots of giggles!

My favorite moment with Miss Addie was when she was bent over Memere's (grandma's) toy basket handing me toys behind her back without turning around. Each time I took a toy from her hand she would burst into a fresh round of giggles. A few times she almost fell into the basket she was laughing so hard! My dad (Pepere) caught some of it on video... I will be doing my best to get my hands on that footage!

These pictures are the only ones I took all weekend. Most of the time I was too busy playing with Addie or talking with my mom and sisters to take pictures. This is me trying to take a picture of us... might have turned out better if I'd just asked one of the other 9 adults in the house to do it for me! Oh well!Addie sure does make the cutest faces! Only four more weeks til I get to see her again... oh yeah, and the rest of my family too ;-)

Taking my holiday temperature

I have always prided myself on my ability to wait until after Thanksgiving to turn on my Christmas mood. I would walk by the holiday aisles in Kohl's and Hobby Lobby shaking my head at how crazy it was for people to start decorating for Christmas before Halloween was even past. I had very strict rules about waiting until December 1st to listen to any Christmas music. I love holidays, but I have always taken them one at a time. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas. No blending. No mixing. One. at. a. time.

Then I moved to Iowa.

I have written about at least once already, I am working on adjusting to the weather up here, which is a bit of a challenge considering I had finally started to get used to the weather in St. Louis just in time to move away. Don't get me wrong, I love it here in Iowa! I love our new town, our church, my job - all of it. But I'm having a bit of trouble with the weather.

October temperatures in Iowa are too much like December temperatures in St. Louis and it's throwing off my internal Holiday thermostat! Halloween is still 4 days away and I am finding that I am getting a bit itchy for Christmas. What the heck. Seriously.

I was running errands in both Kohl's and Hobby Lobby this evening and I actually caught myself looking longingly at the Christmas aisles, and even - gasp - wandered down a few! And even worse, had to tear myself away from the stocking hanger display (which got me really excited because we actually have a mantle piece now from which to hang stockings!) while chanting to myself "It's not even Halloween yet. It's not even Halloween yet."

I have also noticed that when sitting at my desk at work and scrolling through the playlists on my ipod I've been lingering a little too long on the "Christmas Instrumental" mix. It is far too tempting. I'm even considering removing it temporarily until after Thanksgiving as I'm becoming fairly certain that I won't have the will power to last another month without taking the plunge.

I brought up this whole weather/holiday conundrum to Seth tonight. He said he likes that it gets cold earlier because then Christmas is in the middle of winter instead of the beginning. "You'll get used to it," he says.

Used to a winter that's long enough for Christmas to fall in the MIDDLE?!?!?!?!

I think my Christmas itch might be least of my worries after all...