IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK . . . ACK!!!!

Hi Alert Readers!  Yep! I know Halloween is just barely past, and Thanksgiving is still a bit around the corner, but still and all . . . it's beginning to look a like Christmas around our house!  Good grief, Charlie Brown!  Our bedroom has been taken over by Christmas Annalee dolls!  As reported in my last blog, we brought some home from Den's mothers' collection (divided up between Den and his twin sisters). We unpacked them and laid them out around the bedroom so Krissy and Ali can come over and make their selections. There is a 4 foot tall mouse dressed in festive attire, two 24" mice (a man and woman), one 24" Mrs. Santa and a trio of 24" Mr. Santas.  There's also a few 8-12 inchers, and 8 quite small dolls.  The girls are coming over tomorrow morning to make their choices. PLUS, we may or may not have a little surprise for them, too! There may or may not be 4 brand-new ones awaiting them too! We caught a good sale a few months ago.  ;-]

We have kind of a curious tradition in our family. NEW members to our family sometimes have a couple of doubts about us . . . but we always decorate BEFORE Thanksgiving. Seriously- BEFORE Thanksgiving! By Thanksgiving Day, the outside Christmas lights are hung on the house, the tree is up and ready to go, our wreaths are hung around the house and ready to light, our bookshelves and tops of our cabinets are decorated with lights and Annalees, and lighted garlands are strung on anything that doesn't move. We don't actually turn on any lights until the actual Thanksgiving night, but we are always ready.  Our neighbors generally get a big kick out of us- our grandsons out on ladders hanging lights in the middle of November! Trevor decorates our tree every year (has done it for years!).  He has a real "eye" for that. Ali puts all of the big Annalees (and big heavy garlands that she calls "The Beasts"!) on top of our shelves and entertainment center, making them look very cute. Nick and Andrew hang the outside lights. FUN! FUN!! FUN!!! 

Sooooooooo, here we are on November 5^th, trying to plan a good day for our grandchildren to come over. It's hard to get all four at the same time . . . and we may have to do the decorating this year in bits and pieces.

No worries . . .  as long as it's done by Thanksgiving!  Tra la la la la!!!!! 
P.S. Mr. and Mrs. Santa Smith FINISHED their Christmas shopping today!!!!!!  ** whew! **  KIDS: Stay OUT of Grandma's office closet!!!!