Let's get this holiday started!

We are on the countdown to the weekend.  I am so excited about Christmas.  I don't know if you guys can tell it or not, but I am just a little bit into the holidays.  I love them.  It's not about the presents.  Okay, okay, it's not all about the presents. 

For me the best part of the holiday season truly is giving.  I love the look on some one's face when you have picked out that perfect gift just with them in mind.  My Gram was a big believer in this season.  Not that I got everything I wanted.  We lived on a fixed income, but she always made Christmas really special and for that I feel truly blessed.

She always said when it comes to the holidays there are a few simple rules. 

1.  Always wrap your gifts.  No gift bags in our house.  To her they screamed LAZY and I have to admit that while I didn't agree with everything she said while I was growing up...okay, wait.  Who am I kidding with that?  I didn't agree with anything she said while I was growing up.  Part of my charm.  (When I look back on it I don't know how she didn't kill me?)  It seems some of her life lessons did indeed rub off on my.  I would like to say I practice this to this day, but I don't.  Sometimes I just run out of time and gift bags are easy.  But I do agree that any package wrapped and decked out in bows is way prettier than something just plopped into a gift bag.

2.  If you take the time to wrap it, accessorize it.  We always put ribbon on the presents in my house.  I don't think my Gram would have considered herself crafty, but she was.  She would use big ribbons to make her own bows.  And she dressed every box as if it were going to the Academy Awards.  There weren't a lot of presents under the tree but the ones that were there always looked fabulous.  Kind of made us not want to open them.  But we pushed through that.  Yeah, sometimes that was hard.

3.  And her final rule.  If you think you cooked enough; cook more.  My Gram always cooked for the holidays as if we were entertaining my entire high school.  We had enough food to feed a third world country.  We dined on leftovers for days.  I know I get my love of cooking from her and feel pretty blessed by that, and I also know that when I am in the kitchen cooking this holiday season I will feel her presence, but not in a scary-ghost-haunting way.  More like a you're-doing-a-good-job kind of way.  At least until I put the cornbread in my dressing.  We had very different opinions on what constituted a good dressing.

So from me to you....Happy Holidays.