Tis the Season (or Fa La La La La and all that crap)

While others are happily sipping away on eggnog and going shopping, rife with holiday cheer, I'm stuck at home (because I finished my shopping early) and wondering what will go wrong with Christmas this year.

You see the Bear and I have had a streak of pretty bad Christmas seasons over the past few years:

2006: Mom got diagnosed right before Christmas. Spent it in the hospital room.
2007: House got broken in to on Christmas day.
2008: Can't remember, but I think that's when our dog ran away for two weeks. 
2009: Mom very, very sick and passes after New Years.
2010: ???

So, needless to say, some years it feels like quite a chore to get into the Christmas mood.  But as we dragged out the boxes of decorations and started figuring out where to put everything in our new place, I could start to feel the season start to sneak in.

(The Christmas episode of Glee didn't hurt any, either)

While I'll be skipping It's a Wonderful Life this year, I feel like I can make it through the holidays better than I had feared.

Here's my Christmas pretty as a gift to you:

We like candles, if you can't tell

We don't have a chimney, so we do what we can

Our crazy misc. collection of ornaments

And here's something to make you laugh.  Our dog Franklin's reaction when I put on his Christmas sweater: