So. We may be a little different, but that just makes us… uh… special.
The Christmas season started at our house today.
Really.
I’m not even kidding.
As soon as Halloween was over?
BAM.
We were ready to play.
After putting the feet on our furniture properly (hence my mother’s comment on my last post), we rearranged the whole place to make room for…

Our tree.
Notice the blue glow of Hockey Night In Canada just outside the picture.
Also? We put lights on the deck. Apparently, I cannot successfully capture them on film:

Still pretty.
I know people think it’s insane that we bring in the Christmas this early, but really, if it makes us happy?
Why not?
Mmmm… Christmas.
I even put some prettiness in my own room:

My colours! The right green, the right silvery-gray, the right blue, the right chocolate brown.
We’re going to write a post together (Catherine and I) about everything we love about Christmas tomorrow.
Don’t worry — we don’t expect anyone else to have their trees up or anything to read it.
But we’re excited to write it.
AND.
I just realized tonight that I miss playing with kid stuff like Lite Brite and Etch A Sketch and Super Mario Bros.
Not regressing, mind you. Just remembering how damn easy it actually is to have fun.
Because it is.
And sometimes all it takes is putting up your tree on November 4th.

November 5th, 2006 at 9:11 am
Yay! Christmas!
November 5th, 2006 at 10:56 am
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. If you start singing Christgmas carols at work, there’s gonna be trouble. Until Dec. 1. Then I will wholeheartedly embrace the overindulgence in all things Christmas with you, Loony. ;-)
November 5th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
Alright, if I can wear slacks with pleats, you can put your tree up on Nov. 4.~,:^)
Reading this reminded me of a toy I got for Christmas when I was three or four called Mr. Machine. I just Googled it. They (Ideal) are still making the thing, and they haven’t changed it at all. It looks exactly like I remember it—a red plastic Abe Lincoln with an exposed gut of gears and a big lug nut for a nose. I reality-checked on e-bay, where I found a 1960-vintage robot on offer. Same as the current model.
The Man has redesigned almost every other toy–including putting plastic potatoes in Mr Potato Head, which is arguably a good thing, though it ruins the olfactory experience. Mr. Machine, a toy described as a high tech wonder in 1960, is still described in those terms. Its technological merits are not eclipsed by the more recent moon landing and decoding of the human genome (both of which have had more of a cultural than technological impact).
The mechanism remains the colossus dominating our sci-tech horizon! Shop early!
November 5th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
I love your tree! I think you need to give me some tree decorating tips - my last few ones have been seriously ugly.
November 5th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
you are spectacular.
November 5th, 2006 at 9:16 pm
You know, we always fly to my parents house mid-December and have about 2 weeks to enjoy the tree. Maybe we’ll put ours up next weekend.
November 5th, 2006 at 9:44 pm
Oh no you di’n't!
Jeez, Meg, I don’t even want to look at trees for another couple of weeks. And I live in Seattle, the nation’s capitol of Christmas trees! (Okay, maybe that’s Oregon. My point remains, notwithstanding.)
I had an unnatural desire to hear Christmas carols the other day. and I have been digging the egg nog lattes lately. So maybe it’s not too early. But no trees until December.
Maybe November 20th. But no sooner!!!
November 5th, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Thanks for the gingerbread lattes and peppermint mochas and apple turnover joy that we experienced yesterday, Christina. We actually spent the whole card. Yep. We can do that. It really made our Christmas day magical. Well, it would have been more magical if there had been red Christmas cups.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
I miss Super Mario Bros like you wouldn’t believe. Not the newer versions but good old 2-D, NES Super Mario Bros.
We don’t put a tree in our apartment because our dogs will eat it but after seeing your beautiful decorations, I think we might this year.
November 6th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
we won’t get our tree up til dec 9 or so (or it will die before xmas) but i DID start listening to xmas carols as of last wed (day after halloween). bring it on!!!
October 30th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Hallowe’en is over? (checks calendar) Hmmm.