It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Now repeat that in a sing-songy voice and you'll have an idea of what it's like to be me during the holiday season. I freaking LOVE it! I seriously can't get enough. It usually starts for me the week of Thanksgiving, which this year coincided with the return from our honeymoon, so I was already in a crazy-good mood. I guess I've taken my cheery-ness a bit too far this year though, because I've been accused by my friend Andrea of hitting the holiday crack pipe a little too hard. Love her :)

Disclaimer: although I was super happy that the holidays had arrived, I was secretly a little peeved that I didn't give myself a bit more time in between the return from honeymoon and the holidays to lose the wedding/honeymoon weight. Ugh. Guess I'll dive head-first into the eggnog and just wait till January 1, like I do every year ;)

Back to the topic at hand... since this is truly the most wonderful time of the year (go ahead, try to tell there's better time... you won't win) I thought I'd share a few of the things that make it so wonderful for me.

Drumroll please...

Here are Carolyn's favorite holiday, um, things:

SNOW!!!! I love love love it. Thank God I live in upstate NY. I love watching it fall and rest so serenely on my grass. I love seeing it rest peacefully on rooftops and tree branches. I love how cute my dogs look pushing through it with their noses. Now if only we could get the plow trucks to stop coming along and turning it brown. There truly is something to be said for a white Christmas.

Peanut brittle. Need I say more? Someone so thoughtfully assumed that a few extra inches on my waistline would be the perfect Christmas gift and left a huge bag of the stuff at my office. I'm not supposed to share with coworkers, right?

Ahh, Christmas lights. I wish I could tell you that our house resembles Clark Griswold's but hanging one strand along our roofline proved time-consuming enough. Maybe next year.

A warm fire. And yes, this is our fireplace. And no, we didn't douse the logs in kerosene. The house did get so hot, though, that we had to turn the heat off for fear the dogs would pass out. Isn't it so nice to relax in front of a fire, with all the lights off in the house except for the Christmas tree? Ahh, Christmas time... how I love thee. What makes Christmas the most wonderful time of the year for you?