It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I started this post a few weeks ago and it never made it (maybe because while writing it I said to heck with it and got out the Christmas decoration boxes)….

Oh, its that time of year again.  My favorite time.  You know it will soon be Christmas when you start seeing my favorite holiday commercials.  Target.  Oh how I love you!

Growing up we had a tradition.  We would not decorate the house for Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving.  No Christmas music until AFTER Thanksgiving.  On the ride home after spending Thanksgiving at the Brantley family farm my mom would give us all the catalogs she received in the mail and we would make our Christmas list while blaring Tender Tennessee Christmas throughout the car.  I made my list almost two weeks before Thanksgiving this year.  Does this put me on the naughty list?  I feel guilty getting in the spirit really early this year.

So the question is, when is too early to decorate?  I had been trying so hard not to get a head start but I wanted to put the tree up!  It doesn’t help that all the stores I went in have their Christmas decorations all bright and shiny, calling my name “You know you want to.  Come on.  Join the rest of us.  Just do it.  DECORATE already!” Hobby Lobby had their Christmas items displayed in SEPTEMBER!  Seriously!

The reason I haven’t decorated and my family always waited was to not overlook Thanksgiving.  I have fall decorations in my house but it isn’t like I cover the house in Thanksgiving décor.  And for me, the Christmas season is all about giving thanks.  Thanking God for sending His son, our Redeemer.  And Christmas music!  I am not a fan of secular Christmas music.  It doesn’t move me.  Seriously, I on only think of two secular songs I would turn on voluntarily.  I do, however, love Christmas music that truly encompasses the meaning of Christmas, Baby Jesus.  So, to give me the chance to sample some of my collection before Thanksgiving, here are some of my favorite Christmas songs/albums…

1.    Oak Ridge Boys 1982 Christmas Album (I have been listening to it since I was born.  Even though I have the CD, I still have my parent’s vinyl record.  We have not been allowed, and this still rings true today at 29 years old, to come downstairs to see what Santa brought us until track #1 Jesus Was Born Today is blasting on the stereo).

If you watch the video, the guy at 1:27 and 2:45 is my all time favorite!!!  My family can always count on me to sing that part (loudly).  The Oak Ridge boys did a Christmas concert in Athens my senior year the night before the UGA/GA Tech game.  Somehow i convinced my family to go with me.  My parents, my sisters, and I were the youngest people in the crowd by a long shot.  Lauren, Jessica, and I stood up and sang at the top of our lungs almost the entire show.  People were looking at us.  They were confused.  One of my favorite concerts.  Ever.

2.    Little Drummer Boy (Josh Groban…AMAZING!)

3.    Love Has Come (Amy Grant)

4.    Tennessee Christmas (Amy Grant)

5.    Go Tell It On the Mountain (Tenth Avenue North)

6.    Winter Snow (Audrey Assad)

7.    Sweet Little Jesus Boy  (Trisha Yearwood)

8.    It Wasn’t His Child (Trisha Yearwood)

9.    Everything Changed (Eddie Kirkland)

10. Santa Baby

11. Baby It’s Cold Outside (although someone brought to my attention how creepy the song is if you really pay attention to the lyrics…now the song isn’t the same anymore)

12. I haven’t bought it yet but so excited for Michael Buble’s album

Okay, enough for now.  I am sure as I exhaust my Christmas collection (I think CJ is already tired of my Christmas craziness) I will have more Christmas songs to entertain you with!

Merry Christmas :-)

 Lily helping decorate the tree.  And not a single ornament was broken!  She did a great job!

Check out the recipes tab for a great spinach soup which literally took me 10 minutes to make and was super tasty!