Skipping Thanksgiving

It seems like every year Christmas is become more and more commercialized. Decorations in the stores were starting to appear before Halloween and November 1st a lot of store started playing Christmas music! Last time I checked, there were still two holidays in November- Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving. Aside from the groceries for Thanksgiving dinner, neither is really a money-making holiday for businesses, so I can see how they look past it to a more profitable holiday.
As a form of protest or in support of Thanksgiving, my beautiful, creative niece, Lily decided to make a fashion statement. My sister has chronicled Lily's style on her blog. This girl's fashion is fearless and I think it is awesome! She once wore swim googles because she was afraid of air pollution. Our family was all worried that once she started school, the other kids would make fun of her and she would stop creating outfits. Thankfully, we were all wrong and as a first grader, her fashion sense is still as unique as ever!

She is sporting the latest in Pilgrim trends because too many people are decorating for Christmas and Thanksgiving deserves equal attention. Lily is wearing a velvet skirt, a leotard (reportedly on backwards), a yellow and white checked bonnet (because my sister did not go out to get her a black and white one) and her apron is a white t-shirt. When my sister asked her what her classmates thought, Lily responded, "they loved it!"
While I agree with Lily, the scene at my house is quite different. Christmas is Tate's favorite holiday. He LOVES it! We have been listening to Christmas music every night for over a year now. Thursday night, our local newspaper had an open house with a visit from Mr. Santa Claus, himself and we had to be there so Tate could see him. That doesn't mean he wanted to talk to him. Not even when the photographer started asking space questions. (Two pictures she has taken of him at the Cosmosphere have ended up in the paper.)

Taken by: The Hutchinson News photographer Sandra J. Milburn

Taken by: The Hutchinson News photographer Sandra J. Milburn

Tate has been wanting a blue Christmas tree for his room. Having a small Christmas tree in the bedroom was a tradition my mom started when I was growing up. Each of us kids got our own tree to decorate. As much as Tate loves this holiday, I knew I had to continue the tradition, but I was trying to hold off at least until after Thanksgiving. Since we went to the store for a few groceries Sunday morning, I let him pick one out.

After dinner and baths, he got to get the small decorations for his tree out of the basement. He also managed to carry up a "cracker nut," a Santa decoration and Santa hat. He was not happy that Mayer was trying to help him by un-decorating the tree. We are definitely going to have to secure our big tree out of Mayer's reach. This will be something new for our family. Tate was always in awe of the Christmas tree. The only time he really messed with it was to plug in the lights and to occasionally redecorate it.

I will admit that I also love this time of year. There are so many traditions that are special to me. Even though I have been listening to Christmas music for an entire year, I am ready to listen to some without words- the Nutcracker, some George Winston, Mannheim Steamroller and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. According to Tate, it is not Christmas music if it does not have words, especially if the word "Christmas" is not mentioned at least one time in the lyrics. I will be waiting until after Thursday before I get the rest of the decorations out or start playing Christmas music at work.