Christman Explosion

A few weeks ago we joined another couple for our weekly date and they drove us to a house where, as she described it, Christmas exploded. They explained that the owner of this house starts decorating his house in October, and it is amazing. Lights, characters, snowmen playing soldiers in a game of football, and a flashing arrow directing traffic through his driveway. Awesome. Well, I too began Christmas preparation in October and had about 98% of it finished just after Thanksgiving. A few errands here and there last week and I declared myself ready for Christmas. I wanted to avoid the chaos and stress of last minute shopping. Well, yesterday afternoon my husband showed up with a few lists for families who needed some help with Christmas. So despite my careful planning, I found myself out doing last minute shopping - and it was wonderful! Our ward at church has been so generous this year, you wouldn't believe we are in economic hard times. Besides the piles of donated gifts, there were also many money donations that we were able to use last night. We came home with more piles of gifts to wrap, and Isaac and I stayed up way too late wrapping them. When we were done, we looked around, and indeed we had a Christmas explosion at our house too!