It’s Work From Home Friday! And, “Oh Fudge!” I’m asking for trouble in this one. At least I don’t have to wash my mouth out with Lifebuoy!

Clicky clicky to view on YouTube.

We got an earlier than usual start on the holiday season this year. We had to start early because of a special event. It was the realization of a vision we had all the way back in 2009, when we were still house shopping. We hosted Thanksgiving dinner for Tammy’s family.

Since the Fam was coming to see the house (some for the first time) we had to get it all prettied up and decked out. We put up our Christmas decorations the weekend after my birthday, two weeks before Thanksgiving.

Now, me from a couple years ago would’ve thrown an absolute fit over that. “Christmas starts AFTER Thanksgiving!!” I would’ve said. And, yes, that’s still true. But, maybe I’m getting soft in my old age. Maybe Tammy is wearing off on me. (Her iPod has been known to play Christmas music in June.) But, in my own mind I’ve realized that we’re so busy during this time of year that I don’t really get to enjoy “the season.” So why not start a little early and have some more time to take it in?

Thanksgiving was a huge success. The meal was fantastic. The company was great. A good time was had by all.

Immediately after Thanksgiving, rehearsals started for the Christmas musical at church. The show is pretty easy. I don’t have a ton of lines. So there’s not been much stress about the show itself, but the rehearsal schedule has been kind of a grind. I posted about our holiday traditions.  What I didn’t mention is that many of those traditions have been sorely missed so far this year. We missed the Parade of Lights in Grapevine. We haven’t yet been to Holiday in the Park at 6 Flags nor the light show at Joe Pool Lake. We still haven’t watched most of our traditional Christmas shows together. (We did squeeze in “Elf” on a Sunday afternoon.) And now, we’ve got a previously unscheduled Wednesday rehearsal, so I’m going to miss the Middle School Christmas party.

I’ve been in (and even directed) a lot of Christmas shows. I know there is a huge time commitment. I believe that no show is worth doing unless you do it well. I understand that Christmas shows are a great outreach. And I have to admit, we’ve had a lot of fun putting this show together. But I really do feel that this will be my last Christmas show. I’m not giving up theater. I still love it and there are plenty of other shows to do. But Christmas time is just too precious to me and my family to spend half of it at rehearsal.

Having said that, I hope that everyone will come out and see the show next Sunday (12/11) at either 9:20 or 10:50 at Glenview. And if I don’t see you to say it in person, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas!”

Merry Christmas from the Ladd Ginger Bread Village!!

(If you’re reading this via Facebook, click here to see the actual post on my blog, where the video below actually works!)

As traditions go, Christmas is the “coop duh grassy” (stupid French). Christmas lights, trees, stockings, caroling, the gifts, the food, the poorly animated TV specials from the 60’s… the list never ends.

And even in my little family of two, we have a wealth of traditions and it seems to grow a little each year. Such as…

– Putting up the tree while drinking egg nog and listening to Christmas music.
– Getting a new themed Christmas ornament to commemorate some event for the year. (This year’s is a yellow ATV.)
– Going to the drive-through light show at Joe Pool Lake.
– Watching “A Christmas Story”, “Elf”, and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (Boris Karloff and Jim Carey).
– On Christmas morning, we deliver miniature stockings with candy to the people who have to work (Starbucks, Waffle House, etc.).

Please share some of your favorite (or least favorite) Christmas family traditions in the comments.

And now, here, my faithful SYNS readers, is this years traditional Christmas music video, “Oh Holy Crap!”