Sugar plum fairies are dancing in my head

Last night mike and I went to see the nutcracker. i used to go with my mom every year when i was little and i was so excited when mike said he had never been and would go with me!! it was a gorgeous theater and you could get a small glass of wine to take in with you (ballet+wine= love). the costumes and dancing were beautiful, the story was slightly different from the one in austin (ie the whole thing here takes place in dc, there are native americans and frontiermen), not better or worse, just different. but we loved it and it is now megan and mike's christmas bonding time.

decking some halls

the saturday after thanksgiving, i went to help mike decorate his house. now, you all should know that mike is CRAZY about christmas. this guy has so much christmas stuff, he throws a big old christmas party every year and basically wants to wrap christmas up in a blanket and carry it around for a month. this year, he has a small front yard, which of course means decorating. our inspiration was this:

so we got up early saturday, had a big breakfast and headed first to the tree place. i love these places. every year i have a little fake tree, so the tree place feels so special to me since i never get to go there. it was a beautiful day so we walked around for a while, searching for the magical perfect tree (ps- we found it)

always touch the needles

still looking

when we finally found it, we called the guy over and he hauled it out to trim the trunk a little.

chainsaw massacre on the tree

i have no clue what this is called, but it's my favorite part!

all trussed up like a ham

next, it was time to head to home depot to get outside decorations. i love shopping for other people. it's seriously one of my favorite things. so my love of shopping and mike's love of christmas collided in a home depot spending spree!!!

the wreath- wahhhhh! christmas!!!!

green and gold garland, tiny red bows

mini christmas trees

i think it turned out great and most importantly, it was super fun!!! then it was on to the tree. here is the end result (with lights, tinsel, bubble lights, merman, crazy decorations)

merman!!

gobble gobble

so for thanksgiving mike's wonderful family invited me to come over and eat with them! it was a beautiful day in the district, so i made up some pumpkin cream cheese muffins and my megwiches and walked over to mike's. yup, i could walk there- bonus!! sidenote to this- i woke up at 4 am that morning. no, not because i wanted to, but because i couldn't stop sneezing. so i popped a claritin. big mistake. allergy pills make me feel freaky in the head (a phrase i coined while on allergy meds) so when i woke back up i went running and almost got lost. back to the story. i got to mike's and everyone was there, so it was appetizer time!!!

part of the spread

mike's fabulous centerpiece

checking on the turkey

mike's singular candlestick

just cooking it up

mike and i decided to open some wine. this started me on a path to kookiness. wine+allergy meds=super freaky in the head.

mike and his family relaxing

proud turkey papa

soon enough, the turkey was done and it was time for food time!! we set the table, turned on some christmas tunes (my request) and gathered around.

mike's family pup

crazy guy who stalks mike came over

time for a rousing game of clue!!!!

admission of guilt

i'll admit it- i turned on christmas music already. i can't help it, i love christmas so much!! i think i probably got my addiction from my grandmother (shout out, grandma moore!!!) who celebrates christmas like it's her job. each room in her house used to have a christmas tree (some were tiny!!), we decorated buckets of christmas cookies and on christmas eve, someone had better get out their guitar and start belting out some christmas tunes or she was not a happy camper. i loved all of it- the glitter (GLITTER!!!), sparkles, tree decor, cookies (we all know how i love me some cookies), music- everything. as i got older, i couldn't wait until thanksgiving day. not for the turkey, which i never really eat, but because i knew the local radio station majic 95.5 would start playing christmas music and tbs would start playing christmas movies. i mean, who doesn't love 'a christmas story' - "you'll shoot your eye out, you'll shoot your eye out?" all of this has led to today, when i turned on christmas music on nov 18 because i couldn't wait any longer and am contemplating putting up my tree tonight.