Just a nice, soothing picture

It's officially the holiday seaon!! I guess it has been, but now it seems official, being as it is the week of Thanksgiving. I'm excited, and all this excitement has made me a little bit insane, as I've agreed to go shopping on - da da dum - Black Friday! Aughh! My wonderful mother agreed to watch Seth and Lily though, so I'll be sans-kids. Amber and I are going, so it ought to be an adventure...it always is when we get together. I'm also excited, as you know, about my mother's fudge, and I keep thinking about deviled eggs. Mmmmmm. Another item of excitement this week is me getting my paycheck tomorrow! :D Which means I can go Christmas shopping Wednesday!! And Saturday, if time allows, we can put up our Christmas tree. That is one of my favorite times to spend with the kids. We put on Christmas music, and I told them we'd bake Christmas cookies, and if I can remember to, it would be nice to put some of that stuff on the stove that makes the house smell like apple cider...mmmm! I love Christmas. I just try to ignore all the stress-inducing hassles that seem to come with the season. The commercialism (thank you Charlie Brown) and the pressure to make everything perfect..yada yada yada. It's getting down to the root of the season that I like to do. I try to remind the kids why we are celebrating, or who, rather, we are celebrating...and they understand. Lily loves to look at the tiny baby Jesus in our nativity scene. I think we have two...two small glass scenes. I remember setting up our nativity scene when I lived with my mother; it was my favorite thing to do. It looked so authentic..it had the fuzzy hay-like stuff, and then I arranged the wise men and animals so that their necks were all craned, looking at Jesus. Mary was special, because she got a front row view. I saw a similar nativity scene (like my mother's) at Wal-mart and I'm thinking about getting it. There was something about setting that scene up every year that made the story intimate and personal for me...so I'd like my kids to have that too.
So! Another celebration coming up is Seth's birthday. My Sethie will be 6 years old! It's unbelievable but this is not quite as hard as his turning 5 was haha. I think it was his becoming school age that was so difficult for me to accept! He wants a Batman party, with a pinata. I'm planning to announce to anyone who is having difficulty buying him a present, that he needs clothes!! Jeans, to be precise. He wears holes in the knees of his jeans quicker than any kid I've ever seen!! Anyway, he's excited. I'm making cupcakes for his class the Monday of his birthday (don't I sound domestic? haha) and we're making up the obligatory goodie bags. Darn those other efficient mothers!! lol anyway, I'm in a good holiday-cheery mood, so this ought to be a good week.