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| Might have gone a *little* overboard in our bedroom this year? It's fine. |
Someone has asked me this question at least once a day since the start of November.
The short answer? Because I want to.
The long answer...is more complicated than that.
Here I sit at my parents' house while Maverick naps, preparing for the decorating whirlwind that awaits 11 miles north of here at my home church. Whenever he wakes up, we will hit the road for a non-stop, 36-hour decorating bender to prepare for the 2017 Northwest Iowa Women's Conference. Between four and five hundred women will gather on Saturday for a conference (note: this is at a church in the middle of a literal cornfield...the address is Palmer, Iowa...I don't think I need to point out to you how incredible this is), and this being the fourth year I've tackled the challenge (third year with Mav to tote around) you'd think it would start getting easier.
Let me tell you...decorating this much square footage, NEVER gets easier. This church is huge. Two alters, two entrances, five bathrooms, and upwards of 60 tables. We plan all year. I start shopping in June. We have meetings, exchange novel-length emails, and some days it's all I think about...I talk about it to Jamie when she could care less about my cotton vs. greenery debate. I call my mom to ask if I can borrow her cake plates and then yammer on about decor for a half hour. I borrow chandeliers from my sister-in-law and the whole family is involved in getting them to me. I carefully plan the logistics of hauling all my goods from Ames to church, making sure to save enough room for Maverick's pack and play.
It's a challenge and a blessing and I love that I get to spend this much time at one of the places that signifies 'home' for me...around many of the people that feel like 'home' to me too. It's also fun to exercise my decorating muscles somewhere other than our house. Using this 'decorating gift' of mine isn't always something that directly correlates to advancing the Kingdom of God, but I firmly believe that pretty/creative things can draw people to the Creator, the inventor of beautiful things...the One who is more creative than I could ever hope to be. I love getting to play that small part with this conference.
But dang. It's exhausting. And when I go home on Sunday, I just want to plop down on my couch in front of our Christmas tree, eat Chipotle, and watch a Hallmark movie. And Past Mollie has made sure Future Mollie gets to do that.
Don't get all up in arms about our skipping Thanksgiving. We give Thanksgiving it's due respect. We will watch Thanksgiving movies and make a real turkey and my Thanksgiving table will be decked with white pumpkins and greenery and lovely mismatched china...but four weeks is simply not enough time for me to enjoy the Christmas decor I dream about all year. It's just not.
If it's not enough time for you either, here is my permission to put up your tree tomorrow.
After decorating for showers and birthday parties and this amazing women's conference...then Christmas-decorating my parent's house, sometimes the tree at the nursing home, helping Jamie decorate her apartment, helping Josh's mom with her Christmas decor for a day...and then spending a day at the farm helping G'ma Junice untangle her Christmas tree...I honestly just need my house to be DONE in order to have energy for all of that.
I ALSO NEED MY DOUBLE-EAR INFECTION TO GO AWAY PRONTO BUT THAT'S A WHOLE 'NOTHER THING.
Anyway, there's the reason we put Christmas up so early. I'll be honest, it FEELS really early, even for me. But this is what I did last year and I remember Future Mollie being really thankful. And that's a good enough reason for me.
MmB
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