I love the holiday season. For me it starts Monday, October 1st and runs through New Years Day. Halloween and all things spooky kick it off and it rolls through 3 months, 1 full quarter of the year. Seems appropriate that deep winter follows, good time to hibernate after all of the activity. I even coordinate my cell phone wallpaper and texting theme (I use GO SMS Pro) to the various holidays.
As far as Halloween goes, I’m not into haunted houses unless it is the real deal, like Waverly Hills Sanitorium or some such truly haunted place. I do not like masks on people, I need to be able to see their eyes to be comfortable. And I am no fan of anything or anyone jumping out at me or touching me. In other words I am not one that likes being scared by pranks and stage makeup, but I am into paranormal type frights because I’m not scared by that, just fascinated. I do enjoy the fun side of Halloween, like carving pumpkins and cute witches and goblins that come ringing my doorbell, fun foods for parties and even a good costume party if folks dress creatively.
Thanksgiving is like intermission with food. I enjoy food. REALLY enjoy food, goes with being a Taurus, there is an ongoing love affair with all things delicious and edible, and a bittersweet relationship with the scale as a result. Thanksgiving day is just for loading up on calories for energy for Black Friday shopping, and a great excuse to bring the family together. Hopefully you don’t wait for such occasions to have your family come by for dinner. Around the Diva Den all it takes is a phone call in the afternoon and some creative combining of resources to produce a family dinner.
My all time favorite holiday is Christmas. So much so that thanks to living in this very big house, we can have 2 trees, which is my dream. I love decorating trees, and would have one in every single room! Even my bedroom has a tree, a Charlie Brown tree 🙂 because it is such a great Christmas show. I love the decorations, smells, sounds…everything about this holiday rocks! We have a tradition of watching “It’s A Wonderful Life” on Christmas Eve after all the festivities are done and we’re in our jammies.
I want to start a new tradition this year. I get that in this house everyone is an adult, and while we believe in the spirit of Santa, we’ve gone beyond truly believing in the person. However, traditions can be fun for adults even if they are mostly for kids. Last year I stumbled on the whole Elf On The Shelf craze just after the holidays. I think the entire thing is just adorable and my hat is off to the authors of the book, who have created a very special tradition in so many families around the globe. Even though we are adults, I want to ‘adopt’ an elf and begin the tradition. I’m checking out the local adoption centers, you can find your local centers on the website, Elf On The Shelf so you can adopt your own family elf. For those parents looking for creative ideas for their elf to be found each day, I found this cute blog of 100 Mischievous Elf Ideas, they are great!
It is never too early or too late for that matter, to start thinking of ways to make holidays more fun and enjoyable for children young and old alike!
Marti Gardner 
Oh, What fun!