***Catching the ChRiStMaS SpIrIt***

Well, it's beginning to look a little like Christmas around town. I noticed that the city crews have already put up the street decorations in the downtown area. WalMart already has their lawn and garden department transformed into a winter wonderland. The florists in town have holiday displays going up and little lights twinkling on trees within. And, here it is, the middle of November and I'm itching to put out our Christmas decorations!

It all started with a trip to Lowe's a couple of weeks ago, where I picked up a lovely Christmas magazine at the checkout. Oh, it made me want to see my own lighted tree in my own living room! Then, last weekend, while making the trek to Abilene, I found a stray George Strait Christmas cd in my car. Well, of course, I had to pop it in and sing along. My rush towards to the Christmas spirit continued when a friend and I went to not only Hobby Lobby, but also Pier 1, and spent hours prowling through Christmas decorations.

Upon my return to Pampa, I hit both WalMart and Dollar General (hey, this is Pampa...there's not a lot of places to shop...) and found some delightful additions to our holiday decorations. Among my favorite finds are some beautiful glass candles in red and gold that simply clip on the ends of the tree branches. Oh, and the most lovely red poinsettia blossoms that also clip onto the tips of the branches. I also discovered that bronze is a hot new color for tree ornaments this year, so I had to pick up a few of those to incorporate into our Texas-themed tree.

I can just picture it all in my head as I write this! Our main tree in the corner of the living room, loaded with all the candles, birds, poinsettia blooms and keepsake ornaments from the years. Then, there is our Texas tree, with all the western, cowboy and Texas ornaments, wrapped in bronze ribbon and filled in with glittery bronze ornaments. The kitchen/dining room tree gets an update this year with wired white ribbon decorated with candy canes and new red and green ornaments, snowy pinecones and all the more primitive and wood ornaments we've collected through the years. The pink room, as we call my girly retreat, will have a small alpine tree with different shades of turquoise and aqua glass balls and a lovely ribbon of taupe and aqua.

Now, I'm tired just thinking about all the decorating that needs to be done. But, I'm ready to get started transforming our house for the holidays. This means I will have to get Ed to climb up in the attic and start bringing down bins and crates while he is off during the week, so I can get started. Perhaps if I stretch it out over a few days, it won't seem so daunting. Nah! I know once I get started, I will just want to get it all done. And then sit back and enjoy it for a few weeks!