The one where I lighten up and ditch the {Christmas} crabs.

I've been known to be a crab at Christmas. All the pressure....the 'timeline'. 

On one hand I LOVE Christmas. I love the 'meaning' of Christmas.....the celebration.

On the other hand, I LOATHE Christmas. The stress, the pressure. 

A few years back, I put my foot down and took away most of the stress by stopping gift exchanging  among the adults. 

Seriously, that was the best.thing.ever.
Of course, the Coach has cheated on this deal. He is on my naughty list.

So, I'm less crabby about that part. But I do feel like Christmas decorating shuffles my life so much because I am such an 'orderly' person. I like routine. And Christmas decorating is not part of my routine. 

That might sound really weird to most people....and if I really wanted to analyze myself {which is my favorite sport} I would think it goes back to my childhood. Divorced parents, Mom worked a lot of hours, alcoholic/bi-polar father, going from one house to another? no routine?? 

I could totally be a shrink. 

One of my favorite childhood photos. 

Me and my poor doll at my Dad's trailer. Note the bottle of Whisky behind me and a large knife. I'm pretty sure I used that knife to cut my bangs.

My bangs just grew out last year. 

So, yeah, I embrace routine and order. It comforts me. 

Ok, now that we've ventured deep into Suz's psyche....let's talk about how much I've let stuff go.

I used to have the tree in our living room decorated 'formally'. 

Gold/silver/balls & pretties; lots of foo-foo stuff.

In the family room we have a little funky tree and we put all the home made ornaments, along with some silly/tacky things. It was too cute for words. 

Lindsay put her foot down this year. She didn't want the trees like we've done them in the past. {apparently my need for routine and order has not been gifted to my girls....who if we analyzed, grew up with order and routine!} 

All this shrinking is hurting my head.

2012

 Lolo couldn't care either way. So what does that mean?

So, I let them have at it.

Everything on the big tree...except balls. 

I'm so far gone, I've allowed a GLEE ornament into the living room. 

*me laughing hysterically*

BTW: Much to my children's chagrin, the photo/school ornaments will always be my favorite. 

Oh, wait, who are these people, because they appear to be quite normal.

The funky tree is now a 'ball only' tree.

Makes sense right? Ok, no it doesn't, but I don't even care.  

And see the top there where it is totally crooked.

I'm not even going to fix it. 

I think they did a bang up job. 

Guess what.
I'm looking forward to Christmas.

Do you really think I can make it to Christmas without fixing the Tree top?
*crossing fingers*