Tis the season...to outrageous expectations!

"I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I guess I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel. I just don't understand Christmas, I guess. I like getting present and sending Christmas cards, and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed." - Charlie Brown

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I know I just set myself up every year for disappointment, but I have these high hopes of what I want Christmas to be. I do not know if its the movies, songs, or stories about Christmas that make me think that it is supposed to be filled with family time, giving, and cheer; but that is what I want. It just seems to fall a little bit shorter of that line every year.

this is my #ootd for the instagram #decemberphotochallenge , but I just had to share it because my favorite decor is in it. I love that "Merry Christmas" garland I made 2 years ago and thought I lost.

In my house I am the only person, besides my 4 years old, that believes in the magic of Christmas. My husband and 3 older daughters seem to think it is about hurrying up with the shopping and opening presents. It kind of puts a damper on things for me because I seem to be out numbered now.

I remember when my older daughters loved the crafts and baking. Now they just want to hurry up and decorate (half-a55ed and crazy looking)-hurry up and bake the cookies so we can hurry up and devour them (not give them away)-hurry up and make these stupid gifts so mom will stop asking us about them (even though I tell them it is optional to participate)-hurry up...hurry up...hurry up!

Santa was handing out Halloween candy in our neighborhood this year. :)

Now, I will give my poor boring husband some credit. He would much rather just give me some money and tell me to go buy myself something nice, so he can just watch his shows (and not worry about buying me the "wrong" gift). But, instead he does attempt to be jolly and participate in my holiday shenanigans. I think that is why this year is especially hard. Usually I have 2.5 of us holidaying it up (I give my hubby a half for effort) versus the 3 bah-humbugs. This year it is just me and Charlie versus those grumpy girls.

What makes things even worse is, if they do not want to participate in the holiday cheer I am fine, but sometimes the little meanies try to ruin it with complaining (especially about my holiday music and movies) or demanding my time on other things. I have to admit, during December I am kind of selfish. I want to just craft and bake my little heart out and these girls will not let me (wah wah wah, I know).

No elf on the shelf in this house, but I hopped right on the felt tree bandwagon.

I try to remember if I was a holiday grump when I was a middle schooler, but I do not recall. I feel like I have always loved Christmas, baking, crafting, and giving. Maybe I was a little angsty while doing it, but I still think I secretly loved it. Maybe I see these girls as being scrooges, but in reality I am just a little crazy about Christmas. Who knows? Either way, I am going to keep having my unrealistic expectations and maybe one day Santa will whisk me away to the North Pole for all the holiday cheer I can handle.

Tute for Merry Christmas Garland; to include printable template.

My Felt tree was super simple. I just traced cookie cutters on felt, cut them out and decorated with puffy paint. For the gingerbread clothes, I traced the cookie cutters again and drew clothes and just cut out the clothes. Same idea with the Santa Hat. I folded the green felt in half and made a half a tree shape and cut it out. So darn easy!